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Face opera

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21–30 of 116 posts

Re: Face opera

#21
post #19
post #2

I'll stop using Opera (currently my default browser) if facebook acquires it. Such is the level of trust I have over facebook.

Call me a zealot, but if there's one piece of software that I feel ought to be open source, it's a critical centerpiece of modern communication like the web browser. As such, Opera is already not an option for me. In fact, a Facebook acquisition could even change that if the new regime decided to produce a Chromium equivalent.

To me it's how a brand builds trust. Sure you can build trust with open source (afterall, if you can see the source code and build it yourself, it CAN be trusted), but you can also build trust by not being dodgy.

I've been using Opera since its paid days, and despite having switched browsers every year or so, I've still gravitated back to Opera as my day-to-day browsing browser. That's the value of their brand.

Re: Face opera

#23
post #18

I'm really baffled by all those people saying that they will stop using Opera if FB acquires them. I mean - okay, If they start modifying it to send your data to Facebook without way to opt-out - sure, do that. If they start showing ads in fastmail and reading your mails - sure, that's reasonable. But I really think that doing that the moment FB acquires Opera would be quite an overreaction.

Sign of protest?

Re: Face opera

#24
post #18

I'm really baffled by all those people saying that they will stop using Opera if FB acquires them. I mean - okay, If they start modifying it to send your data to Facebook without way to opt-out - sure, do that. If they start showing ads in fastmail and reading your mails - sure, that's reasonable. But I really think that doing that the moment FB acquires Opera would be quite an overreaction.

I don't know. I'm quite worried that the whole technology space is turning into a big brand feud war arena.

We are begining to see the subverting of unrelated products into business strategies. No, I don't want my browser/car/glasses/phone with any strings attached. What are we looking forward to a decade from now? iBank? FB insurence? G+ real state?

I for one will make efforts to avoid those products like the plague. If we do not strenghten small brands, we accept the rule of the big ones.

Overreaction is okay for matters of principle.

Re: Face opera

#25
The article also left out another major benefit to Facebook. If they buy Opera they will get massive exposure in the CIS region where the browser products are the strongest. This can give them a hand overtaking vKontate and could be worth much to Facebook alone. Yandex / vKontate will know this and may want to defend by a counter offer so it could be interesting.

http://gs.statcounter.com/#social_media-RU-monthly-201104-20...

Also worth noting is if the co-founder Jon and Geir's (the other co-founder) widow don't want to sell their stakes, it will make things difficult for anyone to take over and all this speculation is just academic.

Re: Face opera

#26
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not on mobile, which is where Facebook wants a browser.

I use Firefox on my Android. It's a little heavy but it's OK. I like it a lot because I'm a desktop Firefox user and it knows how to sync my bookmarks and my saved forms data and my history back and forth. The UI is also much better than Android's built-in browser and it's been making a lot of progress. I think people are not seeing the forest from the trees here. Firefox has a lot of potential on mobile phones, beca…

Gecko will NEVER render on a feature phone. The Mozilla team has repeated this statement again and again.

Re: Face opera

#28
This post might just be to push people to leave Opera probably. Opens up a huge market for the other not-so-good browsers to prep up their marketing on app stores!

Re: Face opera

#29
The reason Opera users don't like the idea of Facebook buying their browser is twofold.

1) Association - Facebook has a really bad image among many people, and I believe Opera has a hugely better reputation than their potential buyer.

2) Fear that Opera will stray from it's declared course of supporting the open web and creating the best browsing experience (which it currently delivers, by far).

I will not be uninstalling Opera if the acquisition takes place but will keep a very close eye on any developments.

Unfortunately Opera is the only choice for me in the current browser market - other browser can't accommodate my browsing habits, so I would be very bitter if anything were to go wrong. I think a lot of Opera users feel the same way.

Re: Face opera

#30
The battle of the giants is really beginning: Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Amazon will be trying to define the future of the internet and they will have to attack each others core businesses to grow further.

On several levels of the internet they all try to get a foot in:

1. Cloud: AWS, iCloud, Azure, Gdrive & App engine - Facebook hasn't got a storage or computation sollution

2. Social: Google+, Windows Live, Facebook - Amazon and Apple don't have real social networks

3. App stores: Apple app store, Play, Market Place, Amazon Appstore - Facebook doesn't have a real app store.

4. Operating system: OS X and iOS, Android, Windows - Facebook and Amazon don't have a OS yet.

5. Browser: Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, Amazon Silk - Facebook doesn't have a browser yet.

I really think that all companies will battle each other on all the levels because loosing one level will cause the collapse of the others.

So, Facebook definitely needs a browser.

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