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).
Get used to seeing these type of pages:
http://laguna.t...operaunite.com/
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Exactly, I hope they didn’t just reinvent P2P.
We’re in desperate need for some company that really gets the online/offline sychronization issues right.
I don’t think Opera quite does all that. Look out for the Google Wave APIs for Unite (or a simple Unite-ish server for Chrome).
Basic, it should be kept simple. To go mainstream.
Device Unavailable
The device you were trying to access (laguna.techcrunch.operaunite.com) does not seem to be available.
fail
When I first heard of the service I was wondering how the URLs are going to work. So it seems that now instead of some large hosting server controlling access to you content, operaunite.com will. So we still have to go through their server to get to a particular machine. Which means if an oppressive government instructs opera to take down a particular computer it could.
So Opera filmed this for you because:
a) you were lazy
b) other reasons?
That’s investigative journalism 2.0
I am downloading Opera Unite and excited to test it, I hope this concept is radically going to change the way we interact on Web.
there is always hope my friend.
It’s not. It’s cool, but in a few weeks, everyone will have forgotten about it, and Opera will go back to 1% market share. Guaranteed.
Hm, it’s an interesting product but there are two trends that speak against it:
- People are increasingly mobile with their devices and prefer notebooks over stationary computers that can be always online. That means you opera unite pages go off and online as your computer goes off and online. Cool would be a could based counterpart server that syncs with your opera unite so that if presents the latest version of what your machine when you’re offline.
- The cloud movement works into the opposite direction of having everything online and use whatever devices to access, provide and manipulate media. The approach and the flexibility of the ubiquitous cloud ‘computer’ has a lot of appeal to most early adopters (read potential opera users)
Uh, you can use whatever device with a browser to access the computer running the Unite service.
And for the first one, you can keep your laptop running at home and, yeah, connect with your mobile phone!
What? That’s it? That’s supposed to be “the reinvention of the web”?
The cool thing is the possibilities this opens up. Now anyone can simply share data from their own computer directly with others, without the need for middlemen.
Do Flickr, Facebook, etc have their place? Of cource they do, and will do so in the future as well. The point is we don’t HAVE to rely on those services for everything.
This technology has the potential to make a more ‘personal’ web, where you and just a few of your close friends, or maybe colleagues, are using unite services to share and interact within yourselves directly, without going through other servers.
For example, imagine a collaborative whiteboard application with also takes notes. This would be great in conference calls.
The real power could be when this is implemented in embedded devices. Imagine a person in India using his old phone running Opera Mini chatting to another person using the lounge application in the US…
Imagine if someone has made a Opera Unite Game with Canvas or SVG or something ,and its being played not only on desktops, but on mobile phones, and the nintendo wii’s internet channel (which is actually the opera browser)
Also consider that you are not comfortable sharing pics online on facebook because of their terms and conditions which stated that once a pic is on facebook, it will always remain there and you cant delete it. Imagine if someone creates a unite service, which makes it possible to share the pics hosted on your own computer so that it is NOT uploaded on facebook. The pics will only be available to your friends, will be under your control as you have not uploaded it, and once you’re offline it no longer available to others…I think many people may desire such a functionality…
Many companies are paranoid about privacy, and might not like to use Google docs/Zoho etc…. What it Google or Zoho makes a unite version of their office apps, so that people can collaborately make edit documents/slideshows/excel sheets directly with each other without the Google servers getting in between?
Just thinking of the possiblities here, took me literally 2-3 mins…
Opera’s PR guys are doing a great job here.
LOL!!! Thought exactly the same… LOL!!! This must be marketing… no one would write that without being drunk…
Let’s compare it with Skype.
How is this different from running a webserver on your computer?
Without really looking in to it too much, I’d say that it; doesn’t require you to know what apache/lighttpd/etc are, doesn’t require you to set up port forwarding and firewalling on your router, it has easy to install “widgets” that will multiply in number and add advanced functionality with little configuration – shall I go on?
So it is basically a webserver with a nice installer that abstracts some of the settings that you would otherwise have to do manually, right? Throw in a few widgets. A few-decade-old technology with a nice installer + OMG! widget? Re-inventing the web? Really?
@MUW
Why should I trust Opera with my content any more than the other services you mention? (Google, Zoho, etc)
So how is this different than Tonido, really?
Bum
bum
bum
Bummmmmmm
No PHP =[
I still don’t see the appeal of this.
The first poster, Wesley, hit the nail on the head with that simple link.
From what I’ve seen living in Asia, most people here are very power conscious and don’t leave the PCs on when they’re not actively using them. Also, most people here have laptops and are constantly taking them from place to place. What’s the point of Opera Unite if it’s not going to be available all the time to the people you want to share things with? Might as well just upload it to a social service. Then it’s available to be looked at and commented on all the time.
Incredibly underwhelming. I can’t think of a single reason why anyone would want to use that. Data centers and CDN’s provide speed, reliability, and uptime.
Please tell me why I would want to host or view photos or any other media off a home computer.
I’ve got a better idea : how about use a server that’s in a remote location. You could actually cluster a load of servers and call it a “data center”. Then – here’s the killer – they are DEDICATED to hosting web pages so they’re on 24/7, are configured ONLY to host so have great things like great upload/download speeds etc. Scale it up and you can actually host sites for free or very low cost. That would free up your laptop/computer currently tied down with hosting your OperaUnite pages.
LOL. Exactly.
I like to think I’m a pretty forward thinking guy. And I just don’t get this.
OMG thanks for making my day. I loved this comment.
Opera Unite is not about hosting content on your PC for the public, its more about hosting content to use globally for your own private use or with your friends. The new thing is that its a unified solution that solves the big problem of easily serving content from your local computer. Sure there other ways to do this but try explaining that to a non-tech.
Of course if your building a huge web service with tons of traffic you need a dedicated server. This product is for home use with friends or co-workers. Lite content sharing without much configuration.
How is this different from the Firefox Plain Old Webserver add-on (https://addons....efox/addon/3002)?
So this is all about allowing people to host web pages from their own PC’s? To share photos and videos without uploading them?
Uhm… so if they close their browser the service goes down?
If more than 2 people try and access at the same time will the poor user’s internet connection be flooded?
This just doesn’t seem all that great. I was not impressed at all by what I saw in the video. I mean someone had to go code all that stuff, and I don’t see what power having that live in an Opera browser that people have to download gives you.
Maybe I just don’t get it, but I sure hope Opera isn’t spending too much money on this effort because it’s likely not to earn them much of anything in return.
i agree. the concept is simply flawed for use in real life.
More like a bag of rocks!
I wasn’t too sure at first, but having just downloaded it, started a Lounge, announced it on Twitter and had a dozen or so people chatting in it within about 2 minutes, I was pretty impressed!
The Lounge is up at http://mac.psio...nge/lounge.html if you want to join in the fun
404 Not found
Resource not found
so much for that then
+1
its pretty cool. might just make me switch from chrome to Opera.
give it a few weeks nobody will care.
Bloody hell, Jason, you’re on a hate-roll. Give it a rest…
I agree with some of the criticism, but I actually believe they’re onto something. I can easily see Unite-like tools becoming a hit in the near future. The question is whether it’s too soon – are we there yet when it’s common to own devices that are connected 24/7. (Like the “connected home” that keeps appearing in future concepts videos.) I don’t think so.
What I like about Opera is that theirs is arguably the most user-focused browser. With Unite they’re trying to give you a personal space within the browser, rather than it just being a simple tool. That’s a very interesting development. They may not be redefining the internet, but they’re definitely redefining the browser.
Clearly, nobody is going to use Unite for hosting web pages. But arguing about uptime is just the most obvious thing in the world.
The point is all the cool new ways for a bunch of people online at the same time to interact with each other.
twitter, facebook, myspace etc etc etc etc….
some people don’t like corporations having complete dossiers of every aspect of their lives, etc, etc…
Have fun dealing with each corporations TOS, change of policy, site design change or account suspension.
seems similar to the recently announced google wave platform? am i wrong?
Yes, you are so utterly wrong it makes me sick. Wave is a new form of email, more or less. Unite is a personal web server. They are so not similar that I can only conclude you are on some serious crack rock.
the service might be good, but the video demo is crap and confusing…
It looks like AllPeers idea and/or Technology has benifited or inspired some.
weird!!!
it is a big lie! they argue about middlemen but in this case the opera is the middlemen. there is no easy way for 2 peers to find each other without a middlemen…
Nothing to do with google wave.
In google wave everything resides on the servers and no file sharing (rather real time docs editing!!!!)
plus the versatile chat service where anyone can answer anywhere in the chat.
the edits are real time
Interesting, a very similar concept to Tonido, which I have been using for the last few months. Glad, there is another player in the market.
I’m intrigued as to why you think “it rocks”.
It really doesn’t. Nobody is going to want to use services that require the other user to (1) install software and (2) keep that software running 24/7. The fact that the demo “device” is unavailable now just reinforces that.
And the video sounds like an infomercial. I’m sure Opera didn’t pay to have you write this, but this whole post reads a little like an ad.
It rocks because:
when their pre-alpha version (aka Opera 10) crashes (it did 10 times within 10 minutes here) then your web server is dying. THAT is unique. Browser crash -> web page gone. Welcome to Web 3.0
But serious… I thought Google’s Wave thing was stupid… (they developed real time chat LOL … so what about AIM? lol) but it’s good to see that good old Opera is more stupid … and SCARY to see that people didn’t know that you can use your computer as a web server.
Maybe Opera 11 will be a real web browser? Nah… i’ll stop dreaming
Your lack of understanding of what Wave is all about is truly awe-inspiring.
Then tell me… what is Wave about? It’s something that everyone needs? It’s a mix of IM, email and social networking.
Not a single thing is new. Why such a hype? Ahhhh… its from Google… THAT makes it interesting right?
POOR MANKIND
Probably users will freak out and celebrate when Google or Opera will “reinvent” the good old FidoNet…
Sounds like a good way for people to share private/pirated stuff….. (oops)
You have some features that are similar to other social network services, but the idea of using those services is that you actually do “socialize” with others and that includes people you knew or new from your existing connections.
I think their heart is in the right place, it’s just the implementation which kinda sucks. I really can’t see the point in this “sometimes on” server, apart from ad-hoc sharing – which I believe google wave will provide, in a much better way.
however, as i said – their heart is in the right place – There are numerous reasons why people should start having their own web-servers. The cloud approach has so many cons-
1. You lose control over your data, typically to a commercial company with an agenda which doesn’t necessarily prioritize your happiness / privacy / well being!
2. In many cases, your data is locked into someone elses service, and you cannot (unless a developer) do even the most basic cross-service mashups.
4. You have to upload it (slow and annoying)
5. The services themselves mostly suck because scaling (their ultimate hope is to get popular) is really difficult even when the service is bordering on idiotic, let alone if it actually requires some computational resources! whereas of course most of us have computers which can definitely compute, well beyond most of our needs!
6. centralized services are becoming bottlenecks and single-points of failure.
The cons of running your own is mainly:
1. entry level still high
2. hard to search/discover content(the main disadvantage)
3. b/w, downtimes etc..
Personally I believe some services are meant to be centralized, but most aren’t, and so I am definitely for people running their own servers. Just not in the browser
The best Old Web reference to this would beICQ-ICQ pages-Mirabilis. . the other from the old times would be FTP static website gateways or even when you used BBS along with IRC and usenet in a old app that used to be around back in 1990-1995 (the only thing it did was putting everything in a single window/dashboard)
There are others and they can be found in Mozilla and Firefox
you add the P.O.W Addon and mix it with bits of Allpeers, The Coop, Weave and Snowl = Opera Unite
From the Microsoft side there is actually a exact reference for this and that is Social Desktop that works via Embedded Silverlight Element in Windows 7 Explorer and pretty much allows you to do the same thing. you could add bit of Live Mesh if you want it to connect locally with services that you can the use with other people using Live Mesh. The key in all of it would be Windows 7 tech, Silverlight and the Live Framework. you could also add a MS P2P solution and you would not only be able to share and collaborate but would let you distribute it too.
Other examples are if you simply mixed a Yuuuguuu/SharedView kind of solution with zapr or linkia or orb or wuala and you will also get the very same thing.
Google version of this that is Google Wave (gServices-gGagets) + Google Chrome (since it pushes Google plugins like Gears, NaCl and ODC as the back end)
hell, even the revamp of .Mac with MobileME is also about solving this problem
The problem relies on latency, effective continued connections, security, path managing, routing, upstream bandwith, etc. those are the reasons why few people actively used the old solutions in the 90’s and why even Mozilla has not been able to find the sweet spot yet.
Funny enough it is the very problem that always has obsessed Ray Ozzie and why Live Framework(feedsync, livemesh) was created and it is the main cloud connector bridge for desktops and devices via Windows Azure.
Opera Unite is a Private Cloud Connector Manager. it merely being a web server in a browser would be pointless the things is about Opera Software using their browser, opera link and my.opera as a online services gateway.
The only differences here is that the perspectives are based on desktop/device to clud or cloud to desktop/device
Microsoft and Opera ironically look to coincide on going with Desktop to Cloud, Mozilla/the yuuuguu/zapr reference would be in a point in between those perspectives and Google and Apple are going at it from a Cloud to Desktop/Devices perspective to it.
oops, it should read O3D not ODC and sorry about the typos.. would wish Techcrunch Comments allowed editing.
can i run it by my own web serve ?
I think it’s an interesting idea, but I guarantee it will never take off. Give it a few weeks, everyone will have forgotten about it, and no one will be using it. Guaranteed.
No offense, Opera – there is no doubt you’ve inspired every other web browser with your innovative features (tabbed browsing, mouse gestures, etc) – but this is just never going to take off.
Here is some real analysis of the service, by someone who is not being paid to praise it:
http://factoryj...on-opera-unite/
this is the answer to that:
http://my.opera...ying-the-vision
y’know like, I like called my buddy on his mobile the other day, and like, y’know he didn’t answer, something about subscriber unavailable.
Man, that sucks, y’know, I like think the whole mobile thing will fail big-time, and y’know friends too – what’s the point if you can’t contact them all the time, anytime?
Everything’s gonna fail…