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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.

13 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. :)

  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!
  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. 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...
  6. 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
  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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.