Slashdot Mirror
Google Default Search For Opera Mobile
sayanchak writes "Reuters reports that Opera Software has agreed that Google will be the default partner for its mobile Internet browsers. Google will be the default search partner for the mobile browsers, Opera Mobile and Opera Mini." From the article: "Oslo-based Opera Software is a tiny competitor of Microsoft in the Internet browser market, but the fast-growing part of its business is in browsers for mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices."
Isn't it the same with Firefox? Except, well, Google didn't have to pay for it.
Does this outrule the rumor that Opera has a deal with Microsoft then? (No, I didn't RTFA.)
The Reuters article is light on details. How much is Opera going to make by signing with Google?
The problem with mobile devices isn't that they have low bandwidth or weak hardware (well, arguably), but that network access is extremely high latency. Most web sites are a chore to use through a mobile interface. If Opera's Mobile Browser has full blown ``AJAX'' support, some sites become much more pleasant to use. Notably, GMAIL. No doubt this is what Google has in mind...
AJAX's problems, however, are compounded when the underlying transport is so slow. If a user navigates away from a page with an outstanding background request, or if they issue a second request while the first is outstanding, the results are effectively undefined. : /
The really great mobile applications won't come around until industry stops trying to cram PC oriented web pages at pocket devices.
Heres why (from the apple site):
Don't let its elegant and easy-to-use interface fool you. Beneath the surface of Mac OS X lies an industrial-strength UNIX foundation hard at work to ensure that your computing experience remains free of system crashes and compromised performance. Time-tested security protocols in Mac OS X keep your Mac out of harm's way.
Apples just seem to ummmm you know, like errrr work. Also, they look good, perform reasonably and have more commercial stuff on them than Linux.
liqbase
"Oslo-based Opera Software is a tiny competitor of Microsoft in the Internet browser market, but the fast-growing part of its business is in browsers for mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices."
Yet again, we're comparing everything to bloody Microsoft! Opera are a tiny competitor to Microsoft!? Everybody is! So why can't we have Opera duke it out against Firefox and Safari for a change? We know IE is crap, we know it comes with every installation of Windows, and we know that Windows accounts for a huge percentage of shipped OSes, so can we have a little less obvious journalism - less on the obvious victories of today and more about the battlefields of tomorrow please...
Why oh why is software always be compared to the equivalent product with the greatest market share, regardless of technical merit?
Please, can we just get off the market share thing, it's irrelevant and pointless, as long as you're using what's best.
Right. Opera is tiny compared to MS. And we all have seen what MS has done to every other tiny company that's attempted to compete with them: Bought them out, or simply drove them into irrelevance (if not bankruptcy).
Eventually, the antics of the plucky Opera will awaken the Giant of Redmond, and Opera will be toast. I'm rooting for Opera, but honestly, do they have a snowball's chance in Hell? What's to stop Microsoft from undercutting Opera's prices on some fancy (or un-fancy!) new version of IE for mobile devices?
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
No, you are posting AC because it's a stupid thing to ask, you know it's a stupid thing to ask, and you are only asking it to wind people up. Microsoft aren't hated because they publish proprietary software, they are hated because they break the law, ruin other companies and hold back the industry, for nothing more than money.
This should be -1 offtopic. But I'll answer it anyway from my point of view. I don't think Microsoft is the devil and I don't think Apple is perfect. But I do believe Mac OS X is far better than Windows. I know Mac OS X isn't open source, but I don't mind. I don't think that software should all be free or open source. I prefer the idea of people who develop software being compensated for it. Open source is fine, though. I think it is better for things like file formats or other standards. As far as forcing you to buy their hardware, I like Apple hardware, and am willing to pay more to have it, and a better OS.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
An Opera-Mobile? Is that anything like a Pimpmobile? Ohhhh...you mean that kind of mobile.
I like this, opera mini is really good software that works like a charm on my Siemens C60 I just got from my brother on christmas (he bought a new one and gave me the old one). Everbody that want good search results will use google, it's is the best search engine out there today, so this deal make a lot of sense, both for google and opera.
"Reuters reports that Opera Software has agreed that Google will be the default partner for its mobile Internet browsers."
See!? I told you! I just knew Google bought Opera!!
Looks like the opera PR machine is running at full tilt these days.
...
Nope, sorry. I just don't care.
I just starting using Opera. I have use FF and Safari. I use Safari mainly but I do like Opera. It is really quick in rendering. I like the little drop down to get to my bookmarks. I like how easy it is to "mock" other browsers. The interface is not clunky but clean and workable.
Very nice all around.
"computing experience remains free of system crashes and compromised performance"
This is what I was expecting when I got a job at a Mac based company.
What I experienced was system slow downs due to Carbon based applications stalling (e.g. Retrospect backup) the computer. The only fix was to "Force Quit" the naughty apps. On the server, the watchdog never jumps into gear, because the apps don't acutally crash. Bloody annoying.
I think Mac's are fantastic clients, but I wouldn't use them as a server.
When push comes to shove, I prefer MS Windows 2000/XP for the applications available. The next person who asks me for MS Project for Mac (never available for MacOSX) will get a serve of my cranky side...
At least Opera is available for the Mac. My only gripe is the Print Capabilities compared to Safari, otherwise I prefer Opera on the Mac!
Amazing, now we do not even have to wait for reposts. It is all done in one article.
The subject tells that google is going to be the default. The first sentence tells that google will be the default.
The second sentence tells that google will be the default.
Not bad for a story that is only three sentences long.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
How do you charge for developing it other than charging for the application? I can understand charging for support, and that is a very good idea for major things like an enterprise linux solution that needs a lot of support. But for a lot of things (like small shareware applications) it doesn't work. Mac OS X itself is an example of combining open source and proprietary software. It's based on BSD but has a proprietary (and great) GUI.
Stupidity is like nuclear power, it can be used for good or evil. And you don't want to get any on you.
This is a serious comment, i am only doing this as an AC to avoid being modded +5 funny, -7 flamebait. Why do people on slashdot not mind macs, and yet act like microsoft is the devil (which it, obviously is). Apple's Macintosh is not only just as a proprietary piece of crap as Windows, but it also forces you to purchase their HARDWARE if you want to use it the "legit" way (though this may change with mactels, they have been operating this way for years). In my opinion, each of the two companies is, after all considerations THE WORST FUCKING THING TO EVER HAPPEN TO COMPUTING.
http://malfeasance.50megs.com/
NetFront 3.2, as of now, is the incumbent ruling web browser for Windows Pocket PCs, excluding IE Mobile (Opera Mobile is still in beta/alpha/unreleased stage).
It, too, uses Google as the default search. Really, what *would* they use... MSN search?
I second that, take for example what Mysql does. They make money off of selling liscenes to their opensource code.
thank god someone has sense around slashdot!
Could Microsoft's reputation for poor security and strongarm tactics work against them in the portable market?
Oh my God! Google is the default search engine for Opera Desktop too! What a coincidence!
And no, I doubt gmail was designed with mobile phones in mind.
They have a version for cell phones which was obviously "designed with mobile phones in mind."
CATS/Diebold '08- All your vote are belong to us!
check this out, I know it is a bit offtopic, but its worth a looksee. you can search jobs without having to go through the "middle man" of typical websites! http://www.getthejob.com/Google_jobs.aspx/
GetTheJob.com : Nothing but Real Jobs.
I find it interesting that Google is rapidly becoming a marketing company rather than a technology company. As an increasing number of sites offer search that is at least almost as good, Google is concentrating more on marketing and defense of its position. The justification for the AOL deal (which cost Google $1 billion) was to avoid having AOL go to Microsoft. Now there is some kind of deal with Opera, again based again on marketing, without any obvious technology edge.
This raises the question of wither Google. There's the search engine and Google Maps, but not much else that I've found compelling. If their innovation starts to flag, will they try to follow the path of Coca-Cola (marketing, sugar, caffine and not much else).
This could be a big change for Google's corporate culture. They appear to think of themselves a a software company that hires "really bright" software engineers. Apparently the idea is that these really bright people are going to be the ones who deliver Google's future innovation. This flys in the face of what seems to increasingly be the "facts on the ground", where Google is increasingly driven by marketing deals.
I mentioned RMS; he basically followed the bounty model, years before it became an OSS buzzword. He'd find a client who needed a program badly enough that the value of them getting it for a price outweighed the drawback of their competitors subsequently getting it for free. In particular, consider code that wouldn't get written at all without the bounty.
A lot of the code I write for my day job is custom tailoring for individual clients, so it doesn't really matter whether it's proprietary or OSS (because no one else would want that exact thing anyway). My last employer was big on generalizing and re-selling such things, but that gets messy in a hurry unless you have major economy of scale (on the order of, say, TurboTax's customer base).
Small shareware applications are not too far removed from open-source donationware.
I think you have globbed together shrink-wrapped software and custom development projects. For open source work, the latter lends itself to making developers money. The former does not. I've worked on both sides.
Good call. I for one would be less willing to want to compile my own software and have no support. Since about 98% of the rest of the world have limited coding skills at best, they'd be in the same boat. I mean, I'm sure I could take the posted source somewhere and compile it into Cocoa or Carbon or whatever, but having the security of someone backing you is well worth it. Someone could open a Linux help center, charge $50 a year for coverage, and still come out in the black. I'm sure someone could make an actual Firefox manual, sell it as a book, and it'd at least break even (and prolly bring in converts)
I just wish that they'd make the mobile versions free too. I have a Windows Mobile Smartphone and I liked Opera a little bit more than the IE both WM2002 and WM2003 have (I haven't tried WM5 yet, although I've already downloaded the roms for my mpx200 ^_^). Problem with Opera's mobile browsers is that if you don't pay you can only use it for 14 days and I'm not willing to pay 30 euros for a mobile internet browser, that's for sure.
Thank you so much for saying that.
Mobile now? They joined with AOL to dominate the IM market. Orkut: the largest social network (or is it friendster?). GMail leads free email. Not to mention they already have the market of internet search. And Froogle, and...
Now... Put it all together. A single account that keep tracks of you preferences, your friends, what you buy, what you like, what you do. And that all the time and everywhere with mobile technology. Add a social network / semantics analises software that they will be the only organization on earth with the data to research.
And we will have the Big Brother.
I only hope they keep the "Do No Evil" after that... Maybe we'll have a good Big Brother after all.
I'm a webmaster and I know most websites are "desighned for Internet Explorer", so lots of them will looks a little strange in Opera. I will move back to IE even if my mobile phone has the default Opera program built in.
So, opera makes Google the default homepage for it's mobile browsers.
What's so special about this? FireFox did it without an agreement, hundreds of people not using opera make Google their homepage every day as well.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Why don't you use Opera Mini then?
Clever signature text goes here.
hey! I'm still waiting for a nice PalmOS 5 version to run on my Tapwave Zodiac2 !
Until then, I'm running the browser of an even smaller fish in the brower market - yep, novarra Incs NWeb
My P910 from several months ago came with Google as the default search engine in Opera. I fail to see how this can be called news...
Google will be the default partner for its mobile Internet browsers"
First of all I had no idea that Opera was gay. And DEFAULT partner. Sheesh, what ever happened to monogamy^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hmonopoly.
Although Opera has developed mobile browser for 6 years, I believe Minimo can repeat the miracle just like FireFox did in computer browser market.
--
Keylogger killed my marriage, but saved my life.
--
Keylogger killed my marriage, but saved my life.