Opera Breathes Down Firefox's and Chrome's Necks With Unite

by Lisa Hoover - Jun. 16, 2009Comments (7)

Though the Opera browser isn't open source, it's free and its new server-in-a-browser feature, Unite, is really making significant inroads toward online collaboration. If Chrome and Firefox are to keep their edge over Opera, their development teams had better sit up and take notice.

Opera's Unite technology lets users run chat rooms, host Web sites, and share files that even people not using Opera can access. "The interaction is all done via a central Opera Unite server — Opera Unite uses a proxy between the server and its clients (found at operaunite.com) to avoid the need for any special firewall configuration," writes the development team. Unite launched today with six features but is calling on the Opera community to design and create any new services they'd like to see available.

Read on to have a look at what Opera Unite can already do and why Google and Mozilla haven't cornered the market on browsers just yet.

All the features are available from side tabs that toggle out of the way when not in use. Use File Sharing to make your files accessible to the world, lock them down so only you can see them, or create a password to provide limited access for others.

Fridge is a neat little feature that lets you leave notes for yourself or allow others to access your Fridge and post a note to you.

Want to share videos or other media files with your friends and family? Unite's Media Player gets the job done very efficiently. Just upload your files, choose your preferred access level, and quickly email the link.

Photo Sharing makes quick work of getting images into the hands of other people. Send a link to your online photos and friends will be able to quickly access or download them, but not edit or add to your albums.

Images are also availablefor individual viewing, zooming, or emailing.

The Lounge is a fairly bare-bones feature for hosting chats. Each room is assigned its own URL (and a password, if you choose), which users can access from any Web browser without first installing Unite.

The Web Server option lets users offer up content to visitors or run a Web site right from their own computer.

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by Lee Mathews on Jun. 16, 2009

One big weakness with Unite is that data is totally unencrypted...Worth knowing before you open your files up to remote access!

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by an anonymous user on Jun. 16, 2009

Looks like they are really not competing with Chrome (which is focused on minimalism). More like a shot over Tonido's bow.

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by James DSouza on Jun. 17, 2009

But how will they make money - can someone please tell me!

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by wekempf on Jun. 18, 2009

Sorry, the whole idea of unite is flawed and stupid.

1. It's not a server. It's available only while your computer is on and the Opera browser is open. Which is lousy reliability for anyone wanting access to the content you're sharing.

2. It's not decentralized, as Opera claims. You must go through the proxy server that's centralized and owned and controlled by Opera.

3. Users aren't equipped to be providers. They don't know how to deal with distribution issues (bandwidth, up time, etc.) and do a horrid job with maintaining necessary backups.

In other words, this is the worst of both worlds. This is going to generate some buzz, and maybe even some initial usage (though Opera's poor marketshare may prevent even that), but it's a flash in the pan. The hype won't live up to reality, and it won't be used.

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by SeanJA on Jun. 18, 2009

"It's not a server. It's available only while your computer is on and the Opera browser is open. Which is lousy reliability for anyone wanting access to the content you're sharing."

But it is a server, it has to be running, the computer has to be on... the same goes for a server.

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by frogstomp on Feb. 13, 2010

"1. It's not a server. It's available only while your computer is on and the Opera browser is open. Which is lousy reliability for anyone wanting access to the content you're sharing.

2. It's not decentralized, as Opera claims. You must go through the proxy server that's centralized and owned and controlled by Opera.

3. Users aren't equipped to be providers. They don't know how to deal with distribution issues (bandwidth, up time, etc.) and do a horrid job with maintaining necessary backups."

think of limitations and you will become a slave to them. here are some examples of opera unite hosted on my machine, available 24/7 with about 98% of up time:

http://vrazjeuriceonline.tk/

http://metalsharing.tk/

http://metalkino.tk/

http://extremesmoke.tk/

http://metalkoncerti.tk/

leaving computer on and opera running does not pose a problem for me, nowadays computers are silent and powerful, optic kable provides sufficient speed for me to host movies and concerts, . you can disable the use of opera's proxy but I don't see why using it would be somehow wrong... it is only used to manage your ip changes so you don't need to reconnect every time it is switched. the data will not be stored on opera's proxy.

and the bottom line is, opera unite is simple. i don't need to know a line of php and I am able to use full advantage of it's possibilities.

in conclusion, what you said is just plain stupid and not true.

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by server_support on Feb. 01, 2011

Opera is also good. Very light unlike mozilla. My computer always hang when I use mozilla browser.

server support company nyc

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