In the browser space, Firefox has been named the fringe candidate most likely to give Microsoft fits. But Opera has been happy to help in that department, too, and the new Opera 8.0 has enough going for it in terms of features, security, and speed to make advanced PC users actually consider paying for a browser.

Opera has a host of attractive and innovative features that make browsing easier. It also helps to organize information and keep it at your fingertips. We love the tabbed interface, and you can even drag-and-drop tabs to rearrange their order—something you can't do in any other major browser. Another plus: Opera has pop-up blocking that actually works.

The new version keeps track of closed tabs (and pop-ups that have been blocked), so if you realize you closed a tab (or let the browser block a pop-up that you actually wanted open) and shouldn't have, simply click on the trash can near the location bar and open the page again. We also like that you can configure the browser to open a set group of tabbed pages at startup. This means you can flip on your PC, go get your coffee, and come back to not only a launched browser but also CNN.com, NYTimes.com, PCMag.com, and the Drudge Report loaded and ready to go.

As before, bookmarks can be either a single page or a group of tabbed pages. Also as before, the browser keeps track of the top ten sites that you've visited, but you can now access them quickly via a link off the toolbar. A drop-down menu to the right of the location bar allows you to zoom in or out on any page, and pages can be squeezed into a narrow column that will reformat to fit. The only way to get this functionality in another browser is via a plug-in, and we found that Opera zooms pages more accurately than any Firefox plug-in.

Filling out Web forms is a little easier, thanks to Opera's Wand feature. It keeps track of passwords (if you so choose), as well as commonly requested information (name, e-mail address, mailing address, and so on) and offers to fill in this data automatically when a page calls for it.

Internet Explorer users will find surfing with Opera is much faster than they're used to; Opera's support for mouse gestures and keyboard shortcuts is superior to other entries, and Opera is the only browser to offer voice commands. After a 10MB download, can control Opera by clicking the mouse on the Voice menu bar button (or pressing scroll lock) and then saying "Opera back" or "Opera reload". Opera can also read web pages aloud. Voice commands require a headset.

The browser has a Flash animation player built in, but no support for ActiveX controls. That's by design, as ActiveX can be the on-ramp for malware, but it's also a drawback if you often visit legitimate sites that require ActiveX to take advantage of all their features.

Still, Opera includes all kinds of neat features, the most impressive being page zoom and the most promising being voice command. Even in this world of free browsers, the $39 price is well worth it.