Subscribe by EmailOpera to reinvent the web – web waits for fat lady to sing
June 15, 2009 by Chip | 25 commentsBy Sterling “Chip” Camden
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
In the David vs. Goliath battle of the browsers, Opera has always played the part of the mosquito – it preys on both of the major contestants, but it doesn’t eat much (although it has chewed out a nice niche in the mobile browser market). You’ve got to admire them for having the guts to go up against Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, and now even Google.
Well, it appears that Opera’s hubris knows no limits. Now they’re promising to reinvent the web, on Tuesday. I can’t help envisioning a to-do list:
- Sunday: mow the lawn, fix broken down-spout
- Monday: pick up the cleaning, dentist appointment @2PM
- Tuesday: reinvent the web
Yeah, that’ll take all day.
Seriously, though – that’s about all they’re saying on the subject – apart from a cryptic narrative in their Twitter stream that duplicates a comment in the page source for the announcement:
We start our little story with the invention of the modern day computer.
Over the years, the computers grew in numbers, and the next natural step in the evolution was to connect them together. To share things.
But as these little networks grew, some computers gained more power than the rest and called themselves servers.
Today, millions of people are connected together in a great web …
Tom Clarke speculates that this new innovation may have something to do with cloud computing, since the image on the site (shown above) displays a lightning bolt in the clouds. He further guesses that it may have something to do with sharing more data across devices (bookmarks, cookies, history, etc.) via the cloud.
I think the folks at Opera might be even more ambitious. I’m expecting something that runs in the browser and interacts with the cloud in ways that go beyond the traditional HTTP client/server architecture of the web as we know it (including Ajax).
Tomorrow at 9AM CEDT (1AM EDT), we’ll find out whether my prophecy proves proficient, or if I was hoodwinked by their hype.
- Opera Unite — should be “Untie”?
- CapCal: Web Performance Testing From the Lab to the Cloud
- Google Native Client: web deluxe, or ActiveX redux?
- Microsoft introduces ultra-secure web browser
“…r if I was hoodwinked by their hype” – yes, this worries me too! Another cool idea I read is that they might have some sort of mini OS you can put on a USB key and boot from. You connect, sign in and then you have the same ‘desktop’ wherever you are. Unlikely, but it’d be cool.
You say that you think Opera will offer something that goes beyond what we’ve seen before. But what?
I’m thinking more direct communication with servers and other clients — but that’s all speculation on my part.
Isn’t that what Pen Drive Linux does already?
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/all-in-one-usb-dsl/
“You say that you think Opera will offer something that goes beyond what we’ve seen before. But what?”
- conficker!
But we’ve already seen that — unless you mean a version for OS/X and Linux.
Whatever it turns out to be, I am sure it will make hardcore Opera users -/efficiency-/ happy.
Maybe it will force some people to just dig into what the 5MB browser offers too.
2moro comes 2moro.
I wonder wtf they have in store
With the mysteriousness and the hype, they’re almost sure to disappoint unless it’s Web 4.0 or better.
Reinventing the web to me would be peer to peer communications within the browser. I guess imagine the browser IS the IM client.
That’s pretty close to what I’m thinking.
Mobile Widgets! Probably just a widget runtime. Bring Palm Pre like functionality to a wide array of devices. Realistically this is within Opera’s reach. They’ve had minimal user-storage in the past (favorites, pictures, etc). Now’s the right time to push the ‘cloud’ concept with distributed apps. They already have some widget stuff, probably just marketing it more heavily, see here: http://www.opera.com/mobile/features/
I’m thinking peer-to-peer style hosting or caching.
You win the prize! http://unite.opera.com/
My guess is some form of uber thin client, web-backed OS. A small stripped down OS kernel (probably Linux) capable of running on very low profile net machines and also capable of running from USB drive.
Everything else is in the cloud. By carrying your USB stick around you can turn any Internet enabled machine into your own “virtual” machine.
You were thinking thin, and they went with fat.
It sounds like annotations are going to get yet another try. Expect some noise about web 2.0ing the entire web or use of the prefix “meta-”.
Just my guess.
i thought the headline read : OPRAH to reinvent the web on tuesday.
*shucks* i was so excited too.
it totally made sense with the byline: web waits for fat lady to sing.
“It ain’t over until the fat lady sings” originally referred to an opera performance.
Probably its http://unite.opera.com/
I have to say I’m disappointed in Opera. They did not reinvent the web, they merely copied an idea first done by Tonido and then rebranded it as their own:
http://www.tonido.com
Huh, looks like you and I were both right to a certain degree: Opera Unite “a Web server on the Web browser”. Essentially, you use the browser as a content server. It also works between Opera instances, including on mobile devices.
http://unite.opera.com/support/#what_is_unite
Yes, in a disappointing sort of way — looks like you have to keep Opera open in order to keep the mini-server alive. I’ll write another post about this as soon as I’ve had a chance to review it properly.
Well, I can see that they have released it. I for one am quite excited about this, and I can’t wait to mess with their sharing capability.
http://unite.opera.com
It’s a web server inside a web browser how totally amazing!, not.