Opera has released the latest version of their web browser codenamed Kestrel with a host of new features and improvements for performance, site compatibility (Google services), new email and RSS client UI & backend, preview of bookmarks/favorites, speed dial data and personal toolbar synchronization , full history search and improved Windows Vista support.

Here is a brief summary of the new features and improvements in Opera 9.5:

-Opera Link: Bookmarks/Favorites, Personal toolbar, and Speed Dial data can be synchronized via my.opera.com with multiple computers; The option can be accessed from File > Synchronize with My Opera menu; the most recent Speed Dial data will always be used when synchronizing. This is unlike oSync which would simply upload/download the full bookmark list to my.opera.com

-Redesigned Address bar drop-down displayed when entering text in the Address bar:
Includes excerpts from previously visited pages; Improved visual design; Orders entries by popularity and Local file auto-completion

-Experimental screen reader support:
Added support for Microsoft Active Accessibility API (MSAA)
Preliminary support for Window-Eyes, JAWS, NVDA, and OS X VoiceOver

-New Shortcuts: Link

-Experimental notification system: Each new message will generate a notification

-Pressing F5 will check for new messages in the current view; for manually checking for new newsfeeds

-New internal page, opera:historysearch, which searches the content of visited pages

-”Drag to scroll” which allows scrolling by “grabbing” the page, much like on mobile phones with touch screens.

-Increased network buffer size (opera:config#Performance|NetworkBufferSize) from 32KB to 128KB

-Drop-down shadows on Windows 2000, XP, and Vista if Control Panel > Display > Appearance > Effects > Show shadows under menus is enabled

Download Opera 9.5 Kestrel Alpha for Windows | Mac OSX | Unix