Opera Software is a surprisingly hardy independent browser maker, based out of Norway.  With 9 offices worldwide and employees from 51 countries, the company uses its diversity to take on bigger rivals like Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google, despite the fact that it only has just over 500 employees.  DailyTech covered the launch of Opera 9.5 earlier this year, and most recently covered the launch of Opera's 9.6 browser, which featured numerous upgrades.

We took the time to talk with Jon S. von Tetzchner, Opera's CEO and founder.  Mr. Tetzchner is a charismatic figure who once attempted a comedic swim across the Atlantic after he promised to make an attempt if the Opera browser hit a million downloads just days after his release.  Thus, our talk with Tetzchner did not disappoint and offered a lot of insight into the browser maker's current state and its plans for the future.

On the topic of the browser company's Norwegian roots, Mr. Tetzchner described that while the company's heart is in Norway, it’s a virtual U.N. when it comes to its international businesses.  He states, "We see a tremendous strength in diversity, which is down to our most personal values. In those nine offices, we have 51 nationalities represented. I guess we are kind of like the U.S. itself that way."

Discussion turned to the recently released 9.6 browser.  Overall, Mr. Tetzchner says the real difference between his company's browsers and competitors Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox, is that Opera is lighter, faster, and offers more useful built in functionality without having to tack on confusing upgrades.  He states, "Where we differ from Chrome and other browsers is that we are focused on what we can do for you, the person who uses Opera. We spend the time and effort to create useful features and then integrate it in the browser."

He cites many features that set Opera a notch above the competition, stating, "I think first and foremost is speed. Opera is fast. Speed is so many things, but it includes speed of loading pages, speed of display, but also speed of operation. This is where Opera excels with a lot of features that set it apart from other browsers like mouse gestures, fast forward and rewind, the wand for passwords, a robust tool for saving and restoring browsing sessions and Quick find, the full-text search for your browsing history."

He also plugged Opera's email client, which is both lightweight and flexible.  He states, "With 400,000 e-mails in my mailbox, I can tell you no other e-mail client does this better."

Opera, he says, is competitive both with JavaScript load times, something he describes as "a sort of arms race" and in general display and load times.  The release of Google's Chrome browser, he says, has actually been a boon for Opera, as it has shown people that there are alternatives to IE and Firefox.  Since Chrome's release, downloads of Opera are up 20 percent on average daily.  Mr. Tetzchner also praises Google's efforts to support Opera in its push for the browser market to support the most modern standards, something Opera has always been known for.

Mr. Tetzchner is hoping the strength of Opera's 9.6 release will help it grow market share.  In particular, the lightweight, yet fast nature of it he feels is a good match for business users.  Mr. Tetzchner addressed one common criticism of Opera -- that it fails to support Mozilla's popular add-on system.  He pointed out that most of the common add-on functions like pop-up blocking, Javascript blocking, image blocking, and plug-in blocking are available fully implemented in the standard version of Opera 9.6  You can even drag and drop these buttons to your toolbar to give Opera a feel reminiscent of Mozilla with NoScript and AdBlock.  He also mentioned the Widgets platform, which can be used to provide even more functionality.

Turning to a different topic, Mr. Tetzchner had news with Opera's efforts with partner Nintendo.  After great success deploying its browser on the Wii, the best-selling next-generation game console in the world, Opera is looking to conquer the handheld market in full.  As Nintendo roles out its new camera-sporting handheld, the DSi worldwide, it will be spreading Opera, as the device comes with a free download of Opera's software.

Mr. Tetzchner stated:

Nintendo (has) stated that Opera will be a free download for the DSi. This is obviously very exciting for us. The DSi is a great new device and we are extremely happy with our cooperation with Nintendo. They are a very creative company and that can be seen in all their products. We are very excited to be part of that.

Working with Nintendo is a deep honor, and to be part of revolutionary products like the Nitendo Wii and Nintendo DS is exciting for everyone at Opera. Although our company is from Norway, I find we share some common values, particularly in regard to our work ethic, creativity and imagination. I look forward to many productive years of ongoing collaboration with Nintendo.

To have a company of their stature choose Opera has not only energized our company, but the community of Opera users around the world. Many new people have discovered Opera directly because of our involvement with Nintendo.

Wrapping up the insightful discussion, Mr. Tetzchner hinted that Opera Software has a big product in the works.  He stated, "I like surprises, so I won't say too much. The next version of Opera will indeed be a landmark and you won't be kept waiting too long. I think it's safe to say we will focus on our key product areas of speed, standards and security. I hope that you and your readers will be pleased with what's in store."