Could you imagine a world without web browsers? A world with no way to access the vast expanse of the internet, and no way to jump between websites and services with a simple click? That’d be pants, wouldn’t it? That’s why today – October 16 – we’re celebrating World Browser Day 2024! On this special date we’d like to celebrate the amazing role that web browsers play in our daily lives.

Web browsers are an amazing tool that gives you access to all the online information out there – and there’s a lot of it.

At Opera, we’re more than just some dorks in front of a computer, we’re browser nerds – and quite proud of it, to be frank. Yes, we did get this t-shirt made. If you want one, just email us at press-team@opera.com and we’ll sort you out (limits apply).

We’re passionate about making a tool that enables you to have the world’s knowledge one click away. Today, let’s celebrate that browsers exist! And, let’s also celebrate all of you – who just like us –  are browser nerds, and are thinking about your browser and its amazing capabilities.

We’ve been Browser Nerds since 1995

Since the very beginning, we’ve been browser nerds at Opera, that’s why we’ve put a lot of thought and effort into making a browser better – this resulted in innovations such as tabs in the browser and the search function in the toolbar; both were introduced in the year 2000. 

Almost 25 years after the introduction of tabs have gone by, and we haven’t stopped thinking about them. A bit more than a year ago we introduced Tab Islands to help you intuitively group your tabs, and just last week we released a feature called Tab Commands. It uses our built-in Aria AI to help you organize your tabs with a single prompt – bringing AI out of the chatbox and making it interact with your browser. Do you think that’s all? We’re still working on this year’s major release, so stay tuned to these blogs and our Newsletter – which you’ll find if you scroll down past the post’s comments.

Additionally, we’re the precursors of the CSS implementation to the web, and worked for 18 years with Håkon Wium Lie – it’s co-creator and our former CTO. We’re also proud to have developed one of the rendering engines that made it possible to bring web browsing to mobile devices – the Presto engine. Such an engine made it possible to bring mobile browsing to what we know today as feature phones – or simply phones back in the year 2005 – through innovative browsers like Opera Mini.

The building where all of this happened was the same one where another rendering engine was created  at the same time: WebKit. It might have been a “drab” building – as Håkon puts it – but it was one full of browser nerds and where two of the world’s three leading browser engines were born – we even have a commemorative plaque to prove it. If you’re ever in Oslo, at Waldemar Thranes gate 98, you can check it out.

By now you should already be familiar with what I’m trying to say, right? We’re browser nerds, and we think about browsers – and how to improve them – at all times. We invent and reinvent, we create, we test, we break, we fix, and then we test again. It’s a never ending process that has been ongoing for almost 30 years and – believe it or not – we’re only getting started.

The fight for user choice during the Opera Browser Days

During Opera Browser Days – an event dedicated to talking about browsers – we highlighted the important role of user choice. Historically, and to this day, we have a very small ask: that your browser choice be respected on every platform. And – beyond geeking out about browsers – that’s what we keep fighting for, while delivering you the best browsers that make you choose Opera on a daily basis. 

After such an event, we could say that every attendee had become something of a browser expert themselves –really! 

So, just like during the Opera Browser Days, today we celebrate our work around browsers, share it with the world, and geek about it so that others can become browser experts themselves – but for all browsers! In the end, we see our browser as the best tool to do anything and everything when we’re working with our laptops, desktops, phones, tablets, and more devices. Because, when you think about it, your browser can do most of the things you need to do on your device. 

Let’s share the #WorldBrowserDay

Today, let’s congratulate all of the browser nerds out there, and also all of the browsers themselves. We appreciate everyone working on browsers worldwide and everyone of you made the conscious choice of choosing a non-default browser.

So share the #WorldBrowserDay and tell us what you think web browsers are best for, what do you use them more for, why do you think they’re so pivotal, and simply share your browsing experiences with others.

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