The latest rev of Opera’s browser promises faster everything, but if you got used to Ctrl+B for Paste & Go, you’ll have to unlearn that habit.

Not sure what the crew in Oslo was thinking in changing one of the most useful features in the Opera browser to a different keystroke combination, from Ctrl+B to Ctrl+Shift+V, but it’s a real WTF moment the first time you do the old combo and the bookmark menu flies open.

Anyway, Kestrel Soars Anew, because Kestrel is the codename for Opera 9.5. The latest test edition, beta 2, is available for download. Here’s what the flacks have to say about it:

Quick Find - Forgotten the site where you found that perfect gift or idyllic vacation spot? Not to worry, Opera remembers all the text on a page you’ve visited. All you have to do is enter a few words you remember in the address bar and Opera will find the pages with that text. In the newest beta, you can also use Quick Find from your history tab, available under Tools –> History.

Opera Link - Opera Link is a free service that connects your Opera Speed Dial, Bookmarks and Personal Bar between Opera, Opera Mini, the award-winning free browser for your mobile phone, and the Web itself.

Improved Fraud Protection technology - Now Opera keeps you even safer from fraudulent Web sites. Our Fraud Protection now complements PhishTank’s community-powered anti-phishing database with NetCraft’s phishing site database.

Support for Extended Validation (EV) SSL Certificates - Opera supports EV SSL certificates to provide additional assurance and trust for your online transactions.

Powerful Performance - Opera has been the leader in providing full-featured browsing without compromising the performance of the browser. In the new beta we have optimized performance on a number of fronts including substantial gains in the RSS feed reader, Quick Find, and start-up time on Macs. These along with other subtle changes to performance make Opera even faster and more protective of your system memory.

E-mail enlightened - Opera’s built-in e-mail client features faster retrieval of your e-mails, quicker searching through archived mails and is more responsive.

Opera does indeed rock, and especially appeals for one particular reason: it isn’t Internet Explorer.