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Google to Buy Opera?
patro writes "Opera Watch writes Google is planning to buy the Opera browser. The source of the claim is Pierre Chappaz, the former president of Yahoo Europe. Google obviously can't buy Firefox, so Opera might be the next possible candidate." I can't begin to imagine why.
Are you interested in acquiring one aging, slightly flabby, fairly good tech? I'm cheap!
I am not left-handed, either!
It is the most fantastic browser out there.
If they do buy opera will they call it google browser beta and only let it be usable by windows?
Absurd rumor mongering at its best/worst. If Google really wanted to get into the browser arena, why wouldn't they just create their own based on the open (And most importantly, FREE) Gecko engine?
I can't begin to imagine why.
My favorite thing about Slashdot is that the article summaries are so objective.
Google is in a unique position to be a software developer that can create new applications before the market sees a need for them, and be a success at it. I believe they've found a great way to dismiss Microsoft back to the 90's and leave them in the dust.
Google is finding (in many ways) that they're running up against a standards wall. Gmail is very successful in part because of "AJAX" but you know there is more out there. Remember, these guys make software that is mostly server-hosted.
I can't imagine what google is working on next, but I have been contemplating their need for a "proof-of-concept" engine that would be considered a web browser to some, but in all reality it would be an operating system. This sub-operating system would be hardware abstracted from the real OS, but give Google the ability for power users to see what Google can do with data.
Opera makes sense to me. I wish they'd have more platforms supported (Pocket PC was surprisingly ignored until this past month) but it is very standards-oriented and gives Google a real opportunity to denounce Internet Explorer without coming out and saying it directly.
Google can't come out and make a new mini-OS "web browser" that supplies its own standards, so what they can do is take the browser that seems to follow the standards the closest, and adopt their applets to work perfectly in this standard browser. If IE can't run the software, Google can offer a reduced-capacity version of their applet for IE, and basically users who want the powerful one will dump IE for Google. That would be Google's first nail in Microsoft's coffin.
For anyone to think that Google doesn't have the desire to be the next Microsoft, you have to see how much money Google is burning to come up with the best and newest data aggregating applets. Microsoft can't keep up, and they're quickly losing the race to releasing new -- and NEEDED -- applications. Word, Excel, IE -- they're all old news. Google Earth, Google Maps, Google SMS, Google Blogsearch, they're all applications that can be enhanced even further if Google had a standard platform to write their uber-versions for. Opera can be that standard platform that extends Google from merely a website to becoming its own operating system.
mobile market, opera dominates there - google would love to be on every mobile platform.
LetterRip
...the red 'O' is already similar.
C'mon, buy Wikipedia already. "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," and Wikipedia fits that goal better than Google Groups does.
So now they'll be able to track where we're going when it's not mentioned in our gmail or searched for through their search engine.
Could be interesting.
Even people that believe in pre-destiny look both ways before crossing the street.
rumor: n, Unverified information received from another; hearsay.
That's one way to get the Google toolbar loaded on every browser shipped.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
It has been known for some time that google registered gbroswer.com. Could this simply be the beginning of the Google Browser?
It's a pretty good browser, they have a development team in place but in a sellable form, and it has some especial strengths for the high-growth pervasive market. More importantly, it actually has the potential to be a tactical threat to Microsoft, but as a relatively external unit, it could also be sold off if the tactic doesn't work.
Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
A little WHOIS action:
Sure, this is old news... but is it coming to fruition?
Firefox 1.5 has really let me down. It's memory footprint is only slightly larger but what really irks me is that it is a processor hog. Not only that but there was a huge list of bugs they didn't knock out before launching 1.5, I'm not really sure why they chose to do this. (Before you say, "but there's always bugs", there were some serious UI bugs that should have been dealt with.) I'm back to running 1.0.7 until Firefox 1.5 can a nice point release but Opera is looking more and more tempting.
:(
I'm scared that Firefox 2.0 will have twice the system requirments than the operating systems on which it runs which, imho, it shouldn't.
Go here for teh [sic] funny.
This makes perfect sense to me. I think with all of the web services that google develops, they don't want to be inhibited by bugs in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. They could also get people to switch to Opera pretty easily, as most people already use the search engine, and all it would take is a small "download this to enable extra features" button.
I'm surprised they haven't done this already.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
You can't? I can...
Microsoft has announced an intention to kill Google. (All right, Ballmer said so to a guy who was leaving to go to Google. Same difference.) Microsoft has made some announcements of stuff to compete with Google. Microsoft also controls the most-used browser.
Add it all up, and I can sure see why Google might want to have a (better, but less popular) browser under their control...
1. Google buys out Opera
2. Google.com now viewable with Opera and Firefox only
3. M$ pay Google to have IE support for Google.com
4. Google reject M$
5. M$ counter offer
6. Repeat step 4 and 5... 50 times
7. Insane PROFIT!!
Gubuntu, Googlinux, Googdriva, Googebian, Googepis, GoogleHat, Googell Desktop Linux oh god not...Googentoo!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. Emo Philips
The man's been married for a while now. By this point, slashdot is the only thing left in his life over which he has any control. I say we all turn a blind eye to a little editorializing from the man, considering it's the only way he can feel like one anymore.
Reasons to buy Opera:
1. Opera is a fast browser with clean code. Fits with google quality requirements/desires.
2. Opera is closed source. Google can add secret sauce for tracking or search or ad related reasons.
3. Opera can be made into a product to compete with MS without giving away the source to competitors.
Currently, Google has included Firefox in their Adsense referral program. Google is paying $1/click to convert users to Firefox. Why on Earth would they invest millions in that only to buy a competitor? Something stinks here.
http://religiousfreaks.com/Clearly Google's intentions are similar to that of the plans for OpenOffice.
The world's first online web browser.
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
That's actually not a very logical line of thinking. If google.com is not viewable by IE, MS will blame google and ask users to use MSN search (Yes, MS is not sitting on their arses doing nothing about search). Also, please knock off the goddamn $ from the abbreviated Microsoft name - it's like the average 1990 slashdot geek is calling back for his witty abbreviation.
Search Me.
Oprah. I hear that the feeding and makeup costs alone would even make Bill Gates blush.
You are in a maze of little twisting passages, all different.
Opera's most unique product currently is thier small device browsers, currently the best browser available for palm and symbian.
I don't really think this is likely, but I do take exception to this reasoning:
Remember when Apple hired a couple of Mozilla people? Everybody was saying that they were going to release a web browser based on Gecko. In the end, the fact that they were Mozilla people was a red herring, they were hired for their expertise in developing a browser, not their knowledge of Gecko specifically.
So no, I don't really see this happening, but that's mainly because Google don't need to buy Opera to accomplish their goals, not because they've hired a couple of Mozilla people. I think it's more likely that Google are partnering with Opera in the handheld market in some way, Opera's got a good position there and Google are expanding in that direction.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
One word: cellphones.
While Google may have firefox to lean on / depend on to counter IE on the desktop, there's no equivalent on the cellphone/pda side of things (at least nothing that's being used by the big phone makers). Cellphones are going to become increasingly important in connecting to the internet, and Google probably wants to make sure they're not squeezed out by MS and PocketIE. Opera has a pretty good footprint in the PDA / Cellphone world. If Google wants them this will be why.
It was something they purchased.
I can't begin to imagine why.
I don't think Google will buy Opera just yet at least, especially considering Opera's denial in connection to this, but Opera has a much greater foothold than any Mozilla product in the mobile market, and it has earlier been rumored that Google is considering moving into the mobile business more. (actually, they already have with their free WiFi service, their online mobile-targeting services, etc)
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
FTS: "The source of the claim is Pierre Chappaz, the former president of Yahoo Europe"
/. more relevant with breaking news, but this isn't news. It's idle speculation.
l =url2html-4514http://www.blogger.com/profile/38486 32>
FTA: "Pierre Chappaz, the former president of Yahoo Europe, claims to have a source, whom he says is generally very well informed, who told him that Google is planning on buying the Opera web browser."
So someone tells someone something, and then that person tells someone else?
I admire the submitter for trying to make
Also, Chappaz was president of Yahoo Europe for about one month before he submitted his resignation, for personal reasons. His total tenure as president of Yahoo Europe? Less than two months. Here's his blog, which includes the source for TFA. It's in French. And he states that he's guessing that Google might want to in order to compete with MS.ahref=http://www.blogger.com/profile/3848632re
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Google makes money from information that makes their Search Engine better. That is their business model, and everything they do will feed into this. Free Gmail (but all links scanned to populate search engine), Free Internet (but all patterns tracked), etc.
No way am I using a browser and letting Google know THAT much about me, especially if they require you to have a Google account to use.
It looks like gbrowser.com is registered to google, although with a different street address in Mountain View, CA as google.com.
Have you looked at WebCore recently? Since Apple opened development Nokia has been one of the primary external contributors. There are beta versions of WebCore browsers for Series 60 'phones and the '770 floating around, and they stack up quite well against Opera - I wouldn't be surprised if Nokia decided to ditch Opera in favour of their own browser sometime soon. Of course, if Google bought Opera and gave away the mobile version for free, then this might be more attractive...
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Netscape was once a small company with little money and a lot of brain power too.
Microsoft crushed them.
Google with a fraction of a percent of Microsoft's money has survived because they have solved new problems instead of competing with Microsoft on their own turf.
I.E.( "dominant browser" ) is a central part of MS's turf and they will not tolerate Google trying to snag it away from.
I see a fist fight coming.
Week after week the buzz is about Google and new products while MS is struggling to get updates to existing products out of the door.
So who exactly is innovating in the marketplace and who is just protecting existing investment just like an old fossilised company?
Still early in development, and I don't know how excited big phone companies would be to use OSS (especially if using an Microsoft OS), but Mozilla has Minimo coming down the pipe. The existing preview builds already work in many Windows Mobile devices.
Sadly, my PDA isn't one of them.
My wife needed CSS 2.1 support for pagination of printed web pages. Opera is the only browser (at least on OS X) that supports the pagination features of CSS 2.1.
The Tao that can be spoken is not the one eternal Tao
You have 10 hours and a bit more to discuss this story until Opera Press checks Slashdot while drinking their coffee. ;)
Google "buys" something every week...
http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/
Thanks to their Ajax prowess, Google can set themselves up as the provider of any kind of software you can think of... with two exceptions. You need an operating system and a browser to be a Google consumer. Why not go ahead and take care of one of those? They're just increasing the amount of the stack that they control.
Makes sense, right?
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
To get google's attention and interest?
Opera runs comfortably on extremely low-end phones. WebCore does not.
Clever signature text goes here.
I wish they'd just make Google Toolbar for Opera. That's the only reason I don't use it. I'm addicted to it. It's the only reason I still use MSIE. Firefox has it but it's a resource hog. Opera is great as far as resources and security but no Toolbar.
"Pierre Chappaz, the former president of Yahoo Europe, claims to have a source, whom he says is generally very well informed, who told his doctor, who then passed on that information by way of carrier pigeon to a man in the cayman islands who collected interest off the idea for 6 months but has now passed it on to a well known orca in the Gulf of Mexico who carried it across the Atlantic Ocean to just outside of Spain where the orca was then abducted by aliens who had no need of the information and thus deposited the information in France where it worked as a prostitute giving $10 hand jobs until it could save up enough money to travel to England and tell Mr Chappaz that Google is planning on buying the Opera web browser."
Sounds pretty legit to me, guys.
One word: cellphones.
I would go one further: mobile thin clients for the masses.
I'm talking about a very simple mobile device similar to a laptop, with wifi, but with extremely limited hardware. All it can run is Opera and perhaps Google Talk. Access to the web and GMail is all that many people would need (if they switch to using a GMail account). Ajax provides capability to develop desktop-like experiences in the browser.
With minimal hardware requirements, this should be very inexpensive. It may sound crazy, but if you put all the peices to the puzzle (the products that Google has acquired or built and the people Google has hired) it makes sense.
http://thegooglist.blogspot.com/2005/12/opera-cfo- denies-google-acquisition.html
t tp%3A%2F%2Fchappaz.blogspot.com%2F2005%2F12%2Frume ur-google-achterait-opera.html&btnG=Search+Blogs
http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=h
Netscape didn't have loads of cash like Google and they certainly couldn't execute worth a damn.
"sweet dreams are made of this..."
that they're not going to make a server-side, AJAX-based Google Browser? I was so waiting for that...
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
They don't need a browser of their own, but they need a competitive browser market. Firefox, thus, is very important to them -- even if it never gains a majority market share, it forces Microsoft to improve IE again. Opera may have a similar strategic value, especially because on mobile phones it seems like it's mostly Opera or something proprietary, and proprietary means that Google could be locked out or extorted to provide access fees. It doesn't matter that much to them if another browser does well on mobile phones, just like it doesn't matter that much if Firefox or IE win, so long as they have a quality browser(s) available.
I also sometimes wonder how Opera is really doing financially. If they are strapped for cash -- and I have zero idea how they are doing -- that may limit their ability to improve the product, or even the viability of the product entirely. So Google might just be trying to keep the market healthy (from their perspective) by keeping different products in the play.
I much prefer Opera to Firefox, but the ONLY reason why I still use Firefox is because of the Pimpzilla theme. Hopefully Google will make a similar bling-bling theme for Opera top priority :)
Come on, looking at Google's history, I'd expect them to do something web based. You know, just point your browser to broswer.google.com and begin surfing... wait a minute.
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