OSLO – While Microsoft and Mozilla fight for market share in the desktop browser arena, Opera is thinking small – literally.Opera has announced the release of Opera Mini, its browser for handheld mobile devices, which sports enhanced security for online shopping, banking and Web-based email, and new features crafted specifically for mobile use of social networking sites like MySpace and FaceBook.

“I think the main reason for Mini’s success is that it, for the first time, allows millions of people to use their mobile phones to access the same Web sites they do from their desktop,” Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said in written statement released by the company.

As with previous versions, Mini 3.0 includes Opera’s data-compression feature, which works via proxy servers (hosted by Opera) that first translate web pages into “OBML” (Opera Binary Markup Language) prior to sending the pages to the mobile device running Mini, compressing images and other data for faster downloads to the end-user device.

According to Opera, their system compresses web pages by as much as 80-percent, leading to faster browsing and “dramatically reduced” data transfer charges. The company also states that the compression technology allows web pages to be accessed from “basic phones,” so long as the phone has basic mobile web access and page viewing abilities.

Other features of Opera Mini 3.0 include a built-in RSS reader for surfing syndicated content, news and blog sites, and a new “content folding” feature wherein the browser compacts long menus into a single button that end-users can then expand on demand, simplifying the process of looking at standard web sites on the small screens employed by phones and other mobile devices.

Tapping in to popularity of social networking sites, Mini 3.0 offers several features designed to ease the process of sharing content for users on the go. Using the new browser, photos taken by a mobile phone’s camera can be added to a user’s blog, forum site, or email blogs, directly from the mobile device.

Mini 3.0 adds a number of interesting social networking features. For example, the new version lets users access and interact with community sites such as MySpace, Blogger, Flickr, Facebook, and My Opera. Using the browser, photos taken with the phone’s camera can be “instantly published” via email, forum, or blog. Mini also offers secure access to popular web-mail services, including Hotmail, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail.

Opera Mini is available as a free download at www.operamini.com, along with more information on Mini 3.0’s technical specs, ways to check websites for compatibility with Opera Mini and an Opera Mini live demo.