Barracuda continues the streamlined appearance of its forebears, with an ongoing evolution resulting in a smarter, faster browsing experience.

Some of the changes found in Barracuda includes a more versatile Speed Dial option which makes it easier and faster for users to access their favourite websites. Users can now set an unlimited number of Speed Dials thanks to the new Speed Dial flow feature, opening new Speed Dials dynamically as they're added.

You can also customise your Opera browsing experience to a greater extent, with new layout choices and an improved zoom slider which allows you to fit even 5-column layouts comfortably in your display.

Barracuda also manages browser plug-ins much more effectively. When you visit a page requiring the Flash plug-in for example, the browser will automatically download and install it in the background, no extra effort required.

Web developers will also be happy to learn that Barracuda contains a bunch of improvements under the hood as well. The new browser is the fastest version of Opera thus far and also adds support for CSS3's multi-column layouts and gradients, the Web Open Font Format (WOFF) and Google's WebP image protocol.

"In 2011, Opera will have a relentless focus on desktop," said Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products, Opera Software. "Barracuda is our first release in the new year and shows off some of our freshest ideas to make your browsing easier. If you are already an Opera fan, you will appreciate the polish we added to Speed Dial, a favorite feature for many millions of people who use Opera. If you've never tried Opera, maybe Speed Dial will become your favorite feature. And, the best part? It only gets better from here."

The beta version of Opera Barracuda can be downloaded here for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.