Opera Software, maker of the Opera browser, announced its decision to remove ads from the free version of the software.

The reasoning behind this decision, according to CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner, is to go after higher market share than revenue from ads. He added that Opera’s others deals such as with Google for search services allows the company to go ad-free. "Over time, our revenues through third-party agreements, such as with Google and eBay, grew more than the revenues from the ads within the browser. Right now, 45 percent of our revenues are coming from things other than ads, including search deals with Google. It's these improved agreements that allowed us to go free." He said Opera Software would make more money in the long run with more users than it’s currently doing with ads and the current user base.

Although the company has removed ads, it still has the paid e-mail support option that costs $29.00 per year.

Tetzchner further mentioned that his goal it to make Opera world’s second most used browser, in return beating Mozilla’s Firefox along the way. Visioning realistically, he said beating Microsoft and its Windows integrated Internet Explorer would be tough to beat.

The company launched version 8.5 of the Opera browser that excludes the registration module and ads. The browser is compatible with Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris. Opera has also fixed security vulnerabilities and Javascript problems that appear on select websites.

Opera 8.5 is currently available for download from Opera Software website.