Opera has released the latest update to its free desktop web browser, version 9.2. The new version adds a number of new features, but the most interesting one is what Opera calls "Speed Dial."

Speed Dial is a new method of quickly browsing to a favorite web site. When the user hits the "New Tab" button, instead of the usual blank page, a three by three grid appears. The grid takes up the full screen and is laid out in the fashion of a telephone dial with numbers from 1 to 9. Each number can be populated with a different URL, selected either from existing favorites or hotlinks, or entered manually.

Once a web site has been selected for Speed Dial, a thumbnail of the site appears in the space previously occupied by the number. To go to the site, the user can either click on the thumbnail, enter in the number of the site in Opera's address bar and press Enter, or press the Control key followed by the number. Speed Dial can be easily hidden by clicking on a small "Hide" button in the lower-right corner, and the browser will remember this setting when opening new blank tabs. The Speed Dial page also contains an extra search bar, set by default to Yahoo (Opera's main search bar defaults to Google), but this is adjustable via the user preferences page.