Exclusive Video: Hands-On With Opera Unite (It Rocks)

The web is understandably abuzz with chatter over Opera Unite, the technology platform the Norwegian software company unveiled earlier this morning. It’s an intriguing concept, and it could fundamentally change the way we think about how content is shared on the Internet.

Expect this to be a source of inspiration for other browser makers, hopefully crediting Opera Software for getting this type of innovation jump-started. Or could this effectively cause the company’s desktop browser to gain more traction and as much acclaim as its mobile browser deservedly receives?

I’ve been toying with Opera 10 and the built-in Unite Services for a few hours now, and I like the simplicity of it and the sheer potential for external developers to build more stuff on top of the platform. Bugs and kinks notwithstanding – the product is in a fairly rudimentary state for now and has never been tested on such a large scale before today’s launch – I genuinely think we’re at the start of something powerful here, but I’ve also noticed a bit of confusion about what it does and what it is capable of. Fortunately, I got the chance to do a live demo with the folks over at Opera, and they were nice enough to record a video of the session so I could share it with you.

The video is embedded below, and it shows the team testing a couple of services but also features Philip Gronvold (product analyst at Opera) diving a bit deeper into the overall concept of Opera Unite, addressing some of the concerns raised by several people in the comment section of our earlier post (mostly about security, privacy and connectivity).