Paying for a Web Browser
Hey Opera – Firefox is killing your desktop business model. I admire your CEO for aiming to swim from Norway to the USA, but… that's not likely to win over any new users these days. Internet Explorer may have annoyed us in the past, but with free shells like Maxthon, any kind of ad-supported browser is just… silly. You're an underdog, certainly – but hindering adoption by RAISING the bar ain't gonna win anybody over. I'm sure the Opera Web browser has a set of enthusiasts, as does every browser on the planet (even Lynx, I'm sure). OS X has Safari, and Linux has Konqueror. You're pretty much the odd man out, Opera. If you really want to compete, it's time to find another way of monetizing your browser brand. Would I consider installing Opera again? Sure, but I don't *NEED* to install it.
I'm usually one who can notice the slightest speed difference, but I honestly can't see the difference between any browser these days. It all boils down to UI, IMHO – as well as feature set and compatibility. Web standards are certainly important, but… if my Bank doesn't care about Web standards (or is, say, only compatible with IE), you're not creating a very compelling argument for Joe and Judy Consumer.
Good luck with reaching a million, but… the world would be much more impressed if you were shooting for a million REGISTERED (paid) browser users in four days. I'm not going to pay for my browser, and I'm certainly not alone. The average user isn't going to move beyond IE, because that's what's there. Thank goodness advanced users are installing Firefox for their friends and family members – because competition is healthy. But please, Opera – compete!
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7 Comments
izotov
October 8th, 2007
at 9:45am
and every Maxthon core or plugin developer to help make this a better experience for everyone. web browser, web browsers Related Content:IE Team Needs MaxthonCES Camp, TonightMaxthon Script ErrorCool OptoolComcast ProblemsI, BrowserTagJag in FirefoxPaying for a Web BrowserThe Hacker’s DietDownload Video Files [IMG]
Anonymous
April 22nd, 2005
at 12:22pm
Amen, brother.
Anonymous
April 22nd, 2005
at 9:20pm
Well said, Chris. I started using the Mozilla suite exclusively about a year-and-a-half ago, and have never looked back. I would never pay for a browser.
Anonymous
April 23rd, 2005
at 5:41pm
Actually, I'm considering paying for OmniWeb, which has proven to be quite nifty.
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omniweb/
zenyenta
April 23rd, 2005
at 6:43pm
I'm the only one who actually likes the ads, right? I mostly use Firefox, but once in a while it comes in handy to have another browser – like when you want to log into two accounts on a single domain at once. For a while, when Opera 7 was first released I was trying it on as my main browser and found some great sites with the ads. They matched what I was searching for better than the search results or the adwords on the search page did. What it came down to, was that there are just too many things that don't work with Opera to use it anything like exclusively. Regardless of whose fault it is, you need things to work. Also, as Firefox has developed it's so customizable there's really nothing that Opera can do that it can't, or at least nothing I care about.
Anonymous
April 24th, 2005
at 4:15am
Actually, on several of my sites I plan to banning Opera users as it is too much work to make compatible versions that play well with Opera and still works well under IE/Firefox. Sometimes you have to bend the web design “standards” just enough to get a site to render the same on IE/Firefox while at the same time break Opera. My logs show that there are few Opera visitors and that does not justify the extra work.
Rocky
http://www.RockyMoore.com
Anonymous
April 24th, 2005
at 3:22pm
Rocky, if you write code that is complies with the W3C recommendations you won't have to write separate versions for different browsers–your page will work the same in all browsers.
Validate your home page–it has 46 errors. And yet your home page still works in Opera. Opera is pretty forgiving, actually, but it does render code the way the W3C intends, whereas IE has lots of bugs and supports lots of non-standard stuff.
The problem is that many website developers have never learned what the standards are. They write non-standard code that works OK in IE, then complain when modern, standards-compliant browsers like Safari or Opera or the Gecko-based browsers don't display their pages as they intended. That is like blaming your new car for the bumpy ride when it is the road that is bumpy.