The Big Hoopla Over Opera Unite

Never have I been so under-impressed by a single marketing idea. Opera, while a reasonably okay browser for what it is, does not strike me as making massive inroads in the already crowded browser world these days. And with Google Chrome and Safari on Windows, it has more competition than ever.

Enter Opera Unite, an idea Opera feels will reinvent the Web as we know it. As this article accurately points out, Opera Unite feels a lot like Flock with better marketing. Sharing files, music, and photos with your friends and family seamlessly and effortlessly. Sounds almost too good to be true!

The downside is while Opera is claiming that its service is decentralized, the fact that it is using its own proxy to make the magic happen as files fly back and forth really calls that claim into question in a big way. And of course this is totally driven home in Opera’s own TOS which claims in clear language that Opera can block or hold you responsible for what you transmit should it be deemed necessary by Opera. Again, Opera may want to rethink part of the marketing if what I am reading from the link above is correct.

So not only is this browser still not open source, it is also using what many folks might deem as fairly misleading information as part of its marketing campaign. As far as I am concerned, I’d use Flock and stay clear away from this whole mess. To be blunt, Opera can stay united out of my home office. Thanks, but no thanks.