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Opera Rethinks What a Browser In 2017 Should Do: Adds Quick Access To WhatsApp, Telegram, Messenger in v45 (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the modern-browser dept.

Opera says it has been working on a complete redesign of its desktop browser for a few months. Codenamed "Reborn", the new version of the browser focuses on one feature that it thinks many people desire in 2017: a way to stay connected with friends and be able to swiftly share things. The Verge adds: The latest addition is a messaging sidebar built directly into the browser interface. From the sidebar, users can log into their WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Telegram accounts, and chat with friends and family without ever leaving Opera itself. [...] But as with previous updates, there's a lingering feeling that this new feature is a little bit too superficial. While it is nice to have access to chat apps in the browser window, their inclusion makes for a crowded interface.

36 of 99 comments (clear)

  1. Goodbye Opera by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Goodbye Opera, nice knowing you. I want a browser to browse websites, that's all

    1. Re:Goodbye Opera by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think they're trying to differentiate themselves. I agree, not for me, I don't use any of those social media apps and have no desire to integrate my browser with them.

      The problem for them is, their market share is tiny compared to Chrome. They need to do something different to stand out or people will, for the most part, use Chrome.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Goodbye Opera by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Integrating specific sites or apps into the browser is always a bad, short-sighted idea. They come and go so quickly, and even among your user base only a fraction will actually use those sites at all regularly.

      Anyway, doesn't Opera support extensions? Why not just use those, why bake in bloat that many people won't use?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Goodbye Opera by samwichse · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not really Opera anymore anyway.

      They sold off Opera to another company that is just running a Chrome skin. It doesn't seem to offer much extra reason to use it over Chrome.

      Vivaldi is where the Opera people went. If you liked Opera 12.x, you'll like Vivialdi well enough. Still not quite back where the old Opera was, but getting close. And with a rendering engine that doesn't choke on 50% of modern websites.

    4. Re:Goodbye Opera by Jappus · · Score: 2

      If you want a fully customizable UI, you can always switch to Vivaldi.

      https://vivaldi.com/

      It is led by Opera's former CEO Jon von Tetzchner, has a UI that can be fully customized via JavaScript and can be extended via regular Chrome Extensions if that is not enough.

      And as for site-compatibility, since its rendering Engine is Chrome's Blink engine, you will not find much problems there.

      Reading your post makes me think you're exactly the user that they make their product for. :)

    5. Re:Goodbye Opera by ctrl-alt-canc · · Score: 1

      Totally agree. I never used that crap, I will drop Opera without regret. I am actually in love with Puffin browser for Android, too bad it is not yet available for Windows.

    6. Re:Goodbye Opera by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Shit that is so 1990s. People don't browse like that any more.

      No I'm not being facetious. I'm just observing that someone under the age of 30 is very likely to have 2 tabs permanently open in their browser: WhatsApp and Facebook, for the exact reasons listed.

    7. Re:Goodbye Opera by x_t0ken_407 · · Score: 1

      Glad to see all my fellow Presto Opera lovers are already here mentioning Vivaldi before I got a chance to :)

  2. Wasn't his purchased by a Chinese company by evolutionary · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why do I feel like whomever purchase opera in China is looking to install data collectors (aka Trojans) much like MS has done with Windows 10.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  3. Just like Firefox by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 2

    In other words, add a metric shitload of things that the user does not want anyway. Just like Firefox.

    --
    Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    1. Re:Just like Firefox by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I'm not so sure about that anymore. The more I look around the more I see browsers with lots of tabs, but two familiar ones on every screen: WhatsApp and Facebook. For no other reason than messages and it being a shitload easier to type on a computer than on a phone.

  4. Telegram? Great choice! by blind+biker · · Score: 2

    Telegram is the only popular messaging app, and it's pretty awesome. I highly recommend it. It's similar to Whatsapp, except it doesn't belong to Fuckerberg.

    --
    "The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
  5. What a browser should do in 2017 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Two DOMs. The one that the scripts see, and the one that the user sees. Tricky (i.e. fun to experiment on and develop) rules for propagating changes and events from one to the other. The goal: serve the user, all other considerations extremely, rapidly, distantly secondary.

    That these people think that instant messaging (especially proprietary instant messages) is important or even of non-negative value in a browser, is hilariously out-of-touch.

  6. Memory Usage by Oxygen99 · · Score: 1

    Just having a browser that doesn't take nearly a gig of RAM for a few tabs would be nice.

    --
    I had a dream, bright and carefree, but now there's doubt and gravity
    1. Re:Memory Usage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Maybe one day you'll learn how memory and memory management works in a modern OS.

    2. Re:Memory Usage by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Nobody is complaining about "how memory and memory management works in a modern OS". Just the fact that browsers are memory hogs. That is a property of the browser, not the operating system.

    3. Re:Memory Usage by tepples · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Try this:

      1. Install Firefox (desktop).
      2. Open Firefox and run a Slashdot browsing session.
      3. Look at Firefox's memory use.
      4. In about:config, set privacy.trackingprotection.enabled to true. This enables Firefox's built-in tracking blocker. In practice, it behaves as an ad blocker because most sites neglect to replace tracking-based elements that fail to load with ads that don't track the user.
      5. Restart Firefox and run a comparable Slashdot browsing session.
      6. Look at Firefox's memory use. See how much memory was wasted on tracking the user.

    4. Re:Memory Usage by Sloppy · · Score: 1

      Perhaps it's ridiculous, but is it important?

      --
      As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
    5. Re:Memory Usage by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Looks like you can do that in your regular preferences, in the privacy section.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    6. Re:Memory Usage by tepples · · Score: 2

      The checkbox in Preferences > Privacy applies only to Private Browsing windows. The about:config setting applies to "normal" windows as well.

  7. Re:Telegram? Great choice! by fnj · · Score: 1

    What the hell is wrong than Pidgin? How is this piece of dung better than Pidgin?

  8. Opera Coast by goombah99 · · Score: 1

    Opera has had another browser format all along. On smartphone it's called Opera Coast. It's my favorite browser on the smart phone because it gets out of your way, and it also compresses the web pages when the pipe is slow. While I use Chrome or Safari or Firefox on desktops, the COast browser is truly optimized for the smart phone usage patterns, maximizing screen real estate, quick access to web sites, and reduced download times.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  9. Re:Wait... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...Aren't we all supposed to be complaining about what Firefox is REMOVING these days? Sigh. I can never keep up with this silly hivemind.

    It's easy!
    Anything they do is bad. Even if they do a thing we were mad they didn't do before!

  10. Phantom of the Opera... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    I could never get used to Opera. Of course, the last time I looked at Opera was back in the WinXP days. Loading it up with apps won't change my mind.

  11. A good adBlock by vyvepe · · Score: 1

    A good browser should have especially a good advertisement blocking.
    And some other things like something for blocking scripts (like uMatrix) and something for tracking certificates for selected (e.g. banking) websites.

  12. Trendy by thegreatbob · · Score: 2

    Who started the trend of making web browsers more than just a web browser by default? If someone has a time machine, we should probably take a quick jump back and deal with that.

    --
    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    1. Re:Trendy by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Who started the trend of making web browsers more than just a web browser by default?

      I don't know. Netscape maybe? It's still around, but it doesn't get much press these days. But if stability is what you're after, look no further.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  13. Confused.. by sqorbit · · Score: 2

    So by adding social media apps to their browser you would expect that they'd be targeting a younger crowd that is more involved in using such services. This might be me sounding old, but those that are younger that they would be targeting would also be less likely to download a browser other than what's on their phones already. A desktop version of this browser would totally miss the mark. What type of user would actually be interested in this?

    --
    Sent from my TARDIS
  14. Only Microsoft can restore Windows XP support by tepples · · Score: 1

    Only Microsoft can restore Windows XP support. If your computer runs an operating system that no longer receives security updates, it's likely to get infected with a key logger. And if it does, no web browser can make your connection secure.

    1. Re: Only Microsoft can restore Windows XP support by tepples · · Score: 1

      What's the point of running a web browser, which is a program specifically designed to communicate over the Internet, on a deliberately unpatched PC?

  15. Re:Telegram? Popular? by guyniraxn · · Score: 2

    What is Telegram? I've honestly never heard of it and I have about 5 messaging apps on my phone right now. Not sure how popular it could be.

  16. Sold! by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    They added WhatsApp, Telegram, and Messenger? Sold!

    No, not really. Are those REALLY what people want in 2017???

  17. There is but one true browser by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    It has been stable in function and in form for about 20 years.

    Three guesses which one...

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:There is but one true browser by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      There are but two true browsers....

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  18. Not suspicious at all... by hackel · · Score: 1

    Yes, just hand over the credentials to all of your social media accounts to this innocent Chinese company. What could go wrong??

  19. Standard Bearer by dugrrr · · Score: 1

    At one time, Opera lead the way on web standards compliance.

    Less compliant browsers like IE seemed to have websites catering to their flaws.

    Then, somewhere along the way, it seems that browser development started wagging the dog (and driving standard development all the more).

    I was an early Opera adopter... then I floundered for a bit until Vivaldi came out (Thank you Jon!)

    The current Opera's VPN does interest me... but yada-yada chinese trojans