Is Opera bragging too much?

Not everyone likes to hear Opera brag about its download numbers. David Berlind, the executive editor of ZDNet, complains about this in his latest blog posting.

In a press release, Opera claimed that online security concerns have prompted record downloads of Opera 8.51, which has been downloaded more than a million times in the first week since its release. Here is a snippet from his blog “Is this a new PR tactic? 1. Issue broken software. 2. Wait until a few million people download it. 3. Issue a fix. 4. Wait until at least 1 million people download the fix. 5. Use the opportunity to blame your competitor for the ‘good news?’ “

When I first read the press release yesterday, I thought it was kind of odd. I didn’t really see the link between ‘online security concerns’ and the popularity of Opera 8.51 (that’s why I didn’t write about it yesterday). I thought it was definitely a PR move by Opera, after all it needs lots of it — Firefox seems to be getting much more press coverage (especially with it’s new release today).

Widgets Support in Opera 9?

According to an article in PCWorld Magazine Opera 9 will add support for widgets, which are small external programs that use Opera’s engine and can run on the desktop (like Yahoo’s Konfabulator).

I’m not entirely sure about the accuracy of their claim. I spoke with one of Opera’s desktop developers who hadn’t heard of the widgets claim until we spoke. Perhaps PCWorld is referring to the widgets support that comes with the Opera Platform (mobile).

An Opera spokesman wouldn’t confirm to me anything about widget support in Opera 9.

Get creative with Opera and the Nokia 770

To kick off the release of Opera’s debut on the Nokia 770 Internet tablet, Opera is giving a couple away in a contest (first mentioned here exclusively on Opera Watch).

To win the Nokia 770, print out a picture of the Nokia 770 and show (via an image or video) how you would use it if you had the real thing. The winner will be chosen in a poll conducted on the Opera Community site.

Opera is also conducting another contest based on the Opera Platform (mobile).

I’m working on some of my own creative ideas now; I really want the Nokia 770

A truce in the browser wars for the sake of security

Here is a follow up to my previous post about the major browser venders getting together to discuss browser security. The Opera developers who attended the meeting just wrote their take on the matter.

Here is a snippet:

“It’s good to see all of us put aside our marketing wars for a few days and get down to what really matters: making the Internet a safer place for the people who use our products, whether its Opera, Firefox, IE or Konqueror. The onus for end-user security increasingly rests on the browser vendors. After all, it’s our products that stand between the scammers and the scammed.We can compete over so many aspects of our products, but security at this level requires cooperation and collaboration. And by sitting down at the same table, we have done more to enhance the security of the Internet than we could competing alone.”

Simplifying the Opera Message

I mentioned in passing yesterday that Opera was working on a new campaign towards bringing mass-market adoption of its desktop browser. I was able to obtain a bit more details on this new campaign.

The focus of the new campaign will be on simplifying Opera’s message for the mass consumer. Opera will focus more on the value of features than the features themselves. “We’re going to talk in terms that the average consumer can understand.”

You may not care about the yellow security bar, but you do care that Opera will protect you from identity theft. You don’t care about zoom, you want to see the page better. Those will be some of the more apparent tweaks.

I’d be interested to hear some of your ideas and suggestions on how to help promote the Opera browser. In particular how do we get the average browser user to give Opera a try? Please post your comments below.

Nokia 770 released with Opera browser, Opera contest giveaway

Nokia released their new internet tablet, the Nokia 770, a handheld tablet for Web-browsing over a wireless broadband connection.

The pre-installed browser that is shipped with the Nokia 770 is the Opera browser. An Opera official pointed out to me that Nokia doesn’t highlight that they are using the Opera browser, but we all know better of course. Read more about it here.

I was told that Opera is working on a contest to give away a Nokia 770 on its community site. They hope to have the contest up in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Microsoft teams up with Opera and Firefox to discuss browser security

Last Wednesday, the Internet Explorer (IE) development team met with representatives from Opera, Mozilla (Firefox), and Konqueror to discuss browser security.

They discussed various security issues, including how to handle secure (https) sites, security certificate standards, and anti-phishing methods. You can read more about it on the IE blog and on KDE News.

It’s about time that Microsoft recognizes the severity of browser security.

Opera 8.51 unofficially released

Opera 8.51 has been unofficially released on Opera’s FTP directory.

Opera has not made any official announcement regarding this release at this time, so I’m not aware of the specific updates. Perhaps it’s nothing more than security updates; I assume Opera is focusing on new features for the next major release, Opera 9, at this time.

The official changelog for Opera 8.51 (Windows) will be posted here, when it’s made official.

Update (11/22/05): Opera 8.51 has now been made official by Opera. This latest release fixes a security issue found in the Flash Player as well as a severe stability issue with the Acrobat Reader 7.0.5 plug-in.

Opera desktop download rate doubles since going ad-free

The average daily download rate of the Opera browser for the desktop has more than doubled since going ad-free, compared with the previous rate of before the release of Opera 8.5.

The current download rate of the desktop browser stands at 80,000 – 100,000 per day.

According to the latest figures released by Opera, more than 5.5 million users have downloaded the Opera browser since removing the ads.

In related news, Opera is preparing a big marketing campaign towards bringing mass-market adoption of its desktop browser.

First figures of Opera Mini usage

Since its launch a few months ago, Opera Mini has been downloaded and used on more than 450,000 unique mobile phones. Approximately 1,000,000 pages are currently being downloaded per day through Opera’s servers.