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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.

6 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.

  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. 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.