Opera Announces Opera Unite
A few days ago, Opera told us to expect something big. Many speculations have come up as to what ‘reinvent the web” could actually mean—and most people scoffed at Opera’s claim. Today, Opera announced Opera Unite. Their nutshell explanation of what Opera Unite actually is states “Opera Unite is a unique technology that turns any computer or device running Opera into a Web server.” Big deal, I could already do that with Apache or a number of other software. But Opera Unite can handle more than just serving up a webpage.
The front page of Opera Unite lists the following features:
- File Sharing
- Photo Sharing
- “Fridge” – which appears to be some sort of ‘sticky note’ application
- “The Lounge” – which looks like a form of chat/IM
- Media Player
- Web Server
So, it appears that Opera is pulling a move that we might expect from Google: integrating many known technologies into a seamless environment. Kind of like a Firefox meets Songbird meets DropBox meets Apache sort of deal with a “cloud computing” twist.
At any rate, this should be interesting. Will this be enough to make Opera a real competitor in the browser market? Have you used Opera Unite? Leave us a comment and tell us your thoughts!