Andrew Gregory

Opera Turbo and Internet Filtering

Tuesday, 17. February 2009, 11:22:03

filtering, browser, internet, proxy, opera

Opera just keeps on adding all sorts of useful features to their browser. The latest feature is Opera Turbo.

The idea is that Opera runs a bunch of proxy servers that compress the web pages you're surfing. The result is faster surfing, and less traffic. I will especially welcome this when using my relatively expensive wireless broadband connection on my laptop. The slower speed and cost per megabyte will both be relieved a bit by Opera Turbo.

Economics isn't the only reason, though. Here in Australia, our nanny government is trialling Internet filtering. Innocent citizens must be protected from the dark side of the Internet! Whether they want that protection or not. Whether they want their content blocked or not. Whether they want their Internet connection slowed down or not.

It would be very interesting to see if Opera Turbo's proxy technology could bypass the filtering? By appearing to route all your traffic through innocuous proxy servers in Sweden, I imagine it would work quite well. It's a shame my ISP isn't one of the six selected for the pilot.

Opera 10 AlphaWeb Browser Extensions

Comments

Ryan Octavianus # 18. February 2009, 00:57

is parental control internet filtering? http://www.opera.com/press/releases/2009/02/11/

MisterNobody # 18. February 2009, 05:29

If Opera Turbo will not block illegal sites your ISPs will block Opera Turbo servers.

Andrew Gregory # 18. February 2009, 14:31

I'm hoping the OperaMini+BrightCloud thing is "op in". Also, Opera Mini and Opera Turbo appear to be different services, so BrightCloud may not apply to Turbo.

Of course, the Turbo servers might get blacklisted by the ISP filtering, but I can't imagine that would last. After all, there are plenty of other proxy services out there - will they all get blacklisted? Then there's the fact that the Opera servers aren't actually hosting any content. It would be a bit like when an ISP in England blocked all of Wikipedia last year. It would just show up the filtering as completely stupid and be removed fairly quickly. I hope, anyway!

Charles Schloss # 18. February 2009, 16:42

It will also help on the desktops for people who still use dial up. On the days when the net may be slow Opera is not. On the days when the net is slow Safari can't load the pages very well, but Opera works just fine.

As they said in the third season of Power Rangers "Shift into Turbo"

Andrew Gregory # 19. February 2009, 05:50

Reminds me of the days when computers had "Turbo" and "Reset" buttons on the front, usually right next to each other. One day a colleauge was watching a demo on a computer. It was running a bit slow, so he said "let's hit the Turbo switch", leaned over and pressed ...

Let's just say the demo was interrupted for a few minutes

and that "Turbo switches" were good for a laugh for the following few months.