Opera has released a new version of its browser with instant page loading and Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) on board. With the release, Opera focuses on making the browser fast.
Instant page loading is a mechanism where the Opera browser predicts which website you are typing the address for and begins loading it in the background before you hit enter.
Instant page loading becomes smarter over time by learning which URL inputs led to a specific website. For example, if you type “nyt.com” on multiple occasions, it will learn from this and begin loading the New York Times in the background. In addition, when you search for something in the address bar, it will load the results likely to be clicked in the background.
This new version brings 13 per cent faster startup time compared to Opera 42. Furthermore, the browser engine has gotten a performance boost confirmed by several benchmarks, such as Speedometer (60.3 per cent faster compared to Opera 42), JetStream (7.7 per cent), and Octane (3.35 per cent).
These achievements are possible thanks to Profile Guided Optimization (PGO). PGO is a Visual Studio compiler feature able to make software running on Windows significantly faster. With the help of PGO, Opera can run compiled data faster by selecting a number of important scenarios. It also teaches the compiler which code is important and which is not.
