Opera to launch 'Turbo' for faster Web browsing

Opera Software will next week roll out Turbo, a new server-enabled compression technology for speeding up Web browsing on PCs, mobile phones, gaming machines, and other devices.

Although many of the details are being withheld until Turbo's official launch at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Opera shared some information with journalists this week.

Opera officials contend that Turbo will speed Web browsing by compressing data traffic on wireless and other networks by an average of 80 percent for mobile phones and 71 percent for laptops PCs, for example.

"This high level of data compression ensures the scalability of network resources, enabling more users to receive a high quality browsing experience," according to a white paper obtained from Opera by Betanews.

A diagram in the white paper shows the Opera Turbo Server interfacing between the Internet and three Turbo-enabled clients running on end user devices: Opera Browser, Opera Mobile, and Opera Devices SDK (Software Developers Kit).

While Opera already offers a "server-side optimization" technology called Opera Mini, Opera Turbo will take a different approach, according to Michelle Valdivia Lien, an Opera spokesperson.

"We first tackled compression with Opera Mini, which transcodes pages before transmitting to [a mobile] phone. With Opera Turbo, we're taking optimization to a new level, without transcoding and without compromising the user experience," Lien said today, in an e-mail to Betanews.

Opera is also positioning Turbo as a tool for helping wireless and other network operators to get a better understanding of users' Web browsing behavior.

"By leveraging Opera's server infrastructure, operators can gain insights into consumer behavior by analyzing reports on browsing patterns," according to Opera's white paper.