Announced last week at a global press event, Opera Software has now debuted the next version of its desktop browser, aptly named Opera.
The new browser, which is dubbed Opera 11 and is currently in ‘alpha’ mode, features extensions for the first time in the history of the company / product.
Extensions will allow users to customize their browser by adding features and functionality directly into the browser itself, rather than as standalone Opera Widgets or Opera Unite applications.
Starting today, third-party developers can start building add-ons using Opera APIs, HTML5 and JavaScript and upload and share their extensions for Opera 11 directly.
Opera Software says there are more than 50 million Opera desktop browser users, so that’s an audience any developer should reckon with.
The company stipulates that it will check all extensions before they are made public to ensure the catalog is exempt from defects and malicious software.
They’re pretty late to the add-on game, but I guess at least they’re still in it.
Opera today also launched an open developer API for the Opera Link browser synchronization service. Using this API, developers can integrate Opera Link data with other services online and build applications with libraries made available for Java and Python.
