Opera 52 is out: here is what is new

Opera Software released Opera 52 to the stable release channel on March 22, 2018. The new version of the web browser includes ad-blocking improvements, new error page animations and an option to copy multiple URLs at once.

Opera 52 is already available through the browser's automatic update system. Opera users need to select Opera Menu > About Opera to run a manual check for updates. While the update will be picked up by Opera automatically eventually, users who want to update as soon as possible can use the method to do so.

Another option is to download Opera 52 Stable from the official Opera website to install it over the current installation.

Opera 52: what is new

Opera 52 improves the built-in ad-blocker which the company introduced back in 2016. Opera Software notes that the ad-blocker performs 16 percent faster than in Opera 51 and 44 percent faster than the native ad-blocker of the Google Chrome web browser.

The comparison is not entirely fair though considering that Opera's ad-blocker, when enabled, blocks all advertisement that sites try to load while Google Chrome's ad-blocker becomes active only when Google flagged a site for using certain ad types and formats that impact the user experience the most.

Still, a 16% improvement in performance when compared to Opera 51 improves the user experience significantly.

Opera achieved the improvement by optimizing string matching algorithms.

Opera 52’s ad blocker is now faster than its predecessor and outperformed the recently unveiled ad blocking contender from Google Chrome. Thanks to improved string matching algorithms, Opera’s ad blocker mechanism got increased performance gains to assist in faster page loading.

Opera 52.0 includes an option to copy multiple page addresses in one operation. You may know that you can select multiple tabs in Opera by holding down the Ctrl (Mac OS Command) key on the keyboard and using the left mouse button to select tabs.

The selected tabs can be moved to another window or position on the tab bar in Opera. Opera 52.0 displays the new "copy page addresses" option when you right-click on the selection. Opera copies all URLs of selected websites and services to the Clipboard.

All URLs are concatenated and will be pasted as a single line of characters. Opera's Speed Dial page recognizes multiple URLs in the Clipboard, however, so that you may pin multiple sites in one operation.

Other tab-related operations, reload, close, pin, or mute, are supported as well.

Opera 52.0 supports two additional tab-related features:

1. When you hold down the Shift-key and left-click on a tab, all tabs to the right of the tab are selected as well.
2. Holding down the Alt-key while clicking on the tab selection will close all of them in one swift operation.

New error animations is the last change that Opera Software highlights on the official blog. You can check out the animations directly there or wait until you run into errors to check them out.

Other changes:

• Updated to Chromium 65.0.3325.162
• Enable feed news for RU, UA, BY and US.
• [Mac] Allow double-click to open new downloads
• Hide extension update requests from webRequest API by URL
• Enable flag #scroll-on-active-tab-on-click on beta/stable