Opera Blog
blogs.opera.com · Company blog · on HN since 2013
Opera's official blog announces browser releases, branding, AI and crypto features, bug bounty reports, and security notes.
What HN saysHN commenters cite it for browser history claims like early tabs, for a macOS screen capture bug, and for Opera's data deals in Africa.
54HN people shared it
15linked it in comments
48stories submitted
997story points
8 months agolast shared
2013people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Opera Crypto Browser3 people · 5 points · first shared 2022 · 1 comments on HN
- 2Meet Opera’s new brand identity2 people · 9 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 3Opera's AI Browser Operator2 people · 6 points · first shared 2025 · 1 comments on HN
- 4$8k Bug Bounty Highlight: XSS to RCE in the Opera Browser2 people · 2 points · first shared 2021 · discussion on HN
- 5Opera 50 beta rc cryptocurrency mining protection2 people · first shared 2018
- 6Opera is Reborn1 people · 322 points · first shared 2017 · 291 comments on HN
- 7Opera adds native support for blockchain domain names1 people · 195 points · first shared 2021 · 153 comments on HN
- 8Reborn 3: Desktop browser with Web 3, faster VPN and ad blocker1 people · 186 points · first shared 2019 · 160 comments on HN
- 9Opera launches as a snap for Linux users1 people · 88 points · first shared 2018 · 115 comments on HN
- 10Opera 24 for Linux released on the Developer stream1 people · 71 points · first shared 2014 · 76 comments on HN
- 11Opera will always help you block ads natively1 people · 33 points · first shared 2024 · 54 comments on HN
- 12Opera delivers desktop browser with crypto wallet integration1 people · 25 points · first shared 2018 · 15 comments on HN
- 13Browse the web from a remote Icelandic island, achieve Tabfulness, earn $10k1 people · 3 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
- 14Opera now supports local LLMs1 people · 3 points · first shared 2024 · 1 comments on HN
- 15Opera's Aria Now Comes with Image Generation and Voice Output1 people · 3 points · first shared 2024 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
paxys · 2026-02-20
Nope, actually "both Brave and Opera still support manifest v2" is objectively wrong.
Brave does NOT support manifest v2. They have instead hand picked exactly 4 manifest v2 extensions (AdGuard, NoScript, uBlock Origin, and uMatrix) and have hard-coded special support for them. They quite literally say in https://brave.com/blog/brave-shields-manifest-v3/ that all other v2 extensions will go away from Brave once Google fully removes support for them (which may have happened already, since it was posted a while ago).
As for Opera (https://blogs.opera.com/news/2025/09/mv2-extensions-opera/):
> MV3 extensions are the new standard and will offer a more stable and secure experience. Opera itself will shift to an MV3-only extension store.
n4r9 · 2026-01-20
According to their own blog [0], Opera implemented tabs in 2000. The earliest version of what became Firefox was released as "Phoenix" in 2002 [1]. Phoenix was renamed to Firebird in 2003 and again to Firefox in 2004 [2], in both cases due to name clashes.
[0] https://blogs.opera.com/news/2026/01/opera-one-r3-new-browser-update/
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox_early_version_history
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefox#History
jsheard · 2025-05-29
> However, Opera's development for the past few years has mostly been chasing trends and splitting resources across multiple web browsers. The first experiment after the company's purchase was Opera Neon, which was introduced in 2017 as a concept for new browser design. It was seemingly updated for a few months and then quietly dropped.
Speak of the devil, they just re-announced Opera Neon yesterday but now it's an "agenic AI browser". They're not beating the trend-chaser allegations.
https://blogs.opera.com/news/2025/05/opera-neon-first-ai-agentic-brows…
cmrx64 · 2023-10-05
it’s probably the same as this chromium bug which impacts Opera: https://blogs.opera.com/security/2023/10/screen-capture-notification-m…
basically it’s warming up a cache… i wonder what triggers it in the background, maybe the app restarted itself for an update?
Timber-6539 · 2023-07-15
If am not wrong, Opera is owned by some Chinese company and they are known for doing some really shady stuff [0][1] in African countries.
[0] https://blogs.opera.com/africa/2022/05/free-data-with-opera-and-mtn-in…
[1] https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/21/opera-predatory-loans/
jakub_g · 2020-02-29
Good catch! Here's a better link specifically talking about mobile: https://blogs.opera.com/news/2016/06/ad-blocker-android-ios-windows-ph…
Scottn1 · 2020-02-28
You have your timeline backwards. Opera was the first browser to implement a built-in native adblocker in 2016. Here is the blog announcement:
https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2016/03/opera-built-ad-blocking-now-be…
Opera was and actually continues to be a pioneering browser with many "firsts" over the years. I was an avid user of it for a decade but I am saddened that it has become surrounded in controversy with a shady Chinese owner and predatory loans and stopped using it two years ago.
https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/19/opera-accused-of-predatory-loan-ap…
0x49d1 · 2020-02-25
Opera added the same option today too https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2020/02/r2020-opera67-tidy-your-browsi…
clouddrover · 2018-01-04
It's optional. It can be turned off if you want it off:
https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2017/12/opera-50-beta-rc-cryptocurrenc…
B-Con · 2018-01-03
Opera blog post: https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2017/12/opera-50-beta-rc-cryptocurrenc…
> After we recently updated the rules for our built-in ad blocker mechanism, we eliminated cryptocurrency mining scripts that overuse your device’s computing ability. Simply enable Opera’s ad blocker to prevent cryptocurrency mining sites from doing their dirty work on your computer.
Looks like a blacklist extension to their ad blocker.
rasz · 2017-12-20
Someone did it for them and published last Opera 12.x snapshot
https://blogs.opera.com/security/2017/01/legacy-opera-presto-source-co…
there are people on Russian Opera fan forums still developing patches and improvements to that code base.
jfuhrman · 2015-05-28
>Hardly. Mozilla/Gecko may have been obscure at the time, but it was under active development. O
Firefox had about 3% share at the end of 2004, even less before that.
>Opera is very definitely dead
Huh what? Opera is still under active development.
http://blogs.opera.com/desktop/
>So by "web standards" do you mean "older web standards supported by an outdated browser"?
No, I mean current web standards.
pogue · 2026-03-19
In Opera, with their "VPN" it only affects traffic within the browser and it sounds like that's the same thing Firefox will offer.
A proxy isn't as secure as a full VPN. I had previously read a really good article on it but I hunted and hunted but couldn't find it.
This explains it well enough though:
https://www.quora.com/Is-Opera-browser-with-built-in-VPN-a-genuine-VPN
However, reading the write up from Opera it's actually pretty decent tech that they've had audited by a third party and the whole nine:
Why browsing with Opera’s VPN is safer
https://blogs.opera.com/security/2025/07/opera-vpn-is-safe/
Hopefully no one will start with the whole "they're Chinese owned" argument. If anybody is still on that whole trip, see this (and go watch SomeOrdinaryGamer's video on the subject) but in short it's really nothing to worry about.
Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers
https://blogs.opera.com/security/2023/07/debunking-spyware-misinformat…
mmsc · 2024-07-09
And? Google uses Chrome to retrieve data about the user.
Every Chromium-based browser has 'hidden' APIs only accessible on certain domains. That's how the custom (read: closed source) extensions work. "Component extensions" are used to interact with them normally: https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/extensions/docs/…
See https://blogs.opera.com/security/2021/09/8000-bug-bounty-highlight-xss… and https://blogs.opera.com/security/2021/09/bug-bounty-guest-post-local-f… for examples of when there are vulnerabilities in those extensions, and how they can be abused for remote code execution.
Any whitelisted domains for these APIs cannot be written to using user-installed extensions, in order for a malicious extension to not be able to inject a script and execute the special API.
At Opera, we previously tried attacking the underlying implementation about how these 'hidden' APIs are accessible. Although we found a lot of Opera-specific issues, the Chromium logic seems sound and a "bypass" for other websites accessing the API is unlikely. It also seems that the developer here was just a bit overzealous in allowing this API to be accessed from all google.com subdomains.
bytesandbots · 2017-09-20
Have you tried watching Amazon Prime on Opera browser? Most premium content will not play on any browser other than Chrome, Edge and Firefox. If they play, it will be only SD version. This is not because Opera has not implemented some web standards. It is because the major three browsers have all implemented a proprietary system of content protection.
There is another side of this story. Let's say you have to publish content on your website. You do not have any way to publish it as securely as "Amazon Prime" without signing an agreement with Google and Microsoft.
Thirdly, there comes DRM protection rules thanks to team MPAA. In most countries, you can not try to reverse-engineer the proprietary decryption module that comes with browsers without breaking laws.
Because of the above restriction, security professionals cannot break into the proprietary module to detect security vulnerabilities.
Edit: I was wrong about Opera. Opera is in on the DRM bandwagaon for a long time. https://blogs.opera.com/desktop/2015/07/opera-developer-32-0-1910-0-ne…