Wanted: Browser specialists?

Software engineers specializing in browsers seems so...1995. But Opera Software is on a tear to sign some up.

The Norwegian software developer, which has been making browsers since the mid-1990s, is hiring. It had 128 employees in January 2004. The number has gone up to 210 and the company hopes to have "at least 250 employees" by the end of the year, CEO Jon von Tetzchner told an audience at PC Forum, a conference taking place in Scottsdale, Ariz., this week. PC Forum is part of News.com parent CNET Networks.

The growth plan in part comes from the Opera's emphasis on browsers for mobile phones. Last year, 13 phones that use the company's software came out, he said. Later this year, phones for the Vodafone network will come equipped with the Opera platform, a fancified browser that lets the phone maker put weather, news bulletins and other information on the interface of the phone.

WAP, an Internet protocol created for phones, was supposed to be the standard of choice for phones, but networks are fast enough now to handle standard browsers. Price is also not an issue when it comes to Opera.

"We are dirt cheap," von Tetzchner said.

Opera 8, coming out soon, will also let people navigate via voice commands. "People look at you funny (when you're using voice commands), but at least you have a reason," he said.

Opera got a $12.75 million from Microsoft in 2004 to head off a threatened lawsuit. Dan'l Lewin, a Microsoft vice president, was in the audience for the presentation.