by , 8:00 AM EDT, July 7th, 2005

Opera Software launched Thursday a technical preview of the Opera browser with support for BitTorrent, saying its addition was "the logical next step" in the company's Web browser strategy.

The company says that integrating the popular file-downloading technology in the Opera 8.02 browser preview offers end users a "faster download process by utilizing full bandwidth and reducing the chance of in-transfer delay when multiple users download the same file."

Opera hopes to make it easier for users to download the large amount of legal material available, such as Linux software and computer game demos, the company said in a prepared statement. The Opera browser will also be offered for download as a torrent file.

Opera already supports other file protocols such as FTP and HTTP, and BitTorrent is the logical next step in the company's strategy to make protocols available that increase productivity and the overall Internet experience for the end-users. The BitTorrent protocol differs from FTP and HTTP in that it makes downloading a large file more efficient, as individuals downloading the same file will assist each other in the download process.

Opera emphasized that the technical preview should be used for preview purposes only. It is available at http://my.opera.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=96020.