I also use Opera regularly - it's my main browser on my computer and my phone. I've been using it since the 90s, and actually paid for it back when it displayed an ad for free users! It just has so many useful little extra features, and I generally trust them not to use my data for nefarious purposes.
If this happens--and I've seen nothing as yet to suggest it's anything other than a rumour to get the pageviews up on certain tech blogs--I'll be uninstalling it after nearly fifteen years of use, and probably making the move to Firefox. I don't have a Facebook account, so why would I want to use a Facebook browser? Instead of just tracking me across Like-enabled sites, it'll be able to follow me around the whole internet, logging goodness knows what.
I seem to remember a social networking browser was tried out before, as a forked Firefox and subsequently Chromium, in Flock. Whatever happened to Flock?
I paid for Opera years ago, and I'd actually pay real money again for a good quality, feature-filled browser that was guaranteed to not include tracking. I'd rather pay with my money than my privacy. Money can always be replaced, and earned again. Once privacy's gone, it's gone.
I have been a big fan of and user of Opera since it had banner ads in the free version. It has been a long time as my preferred default browser for home and work PC's. I'd even have it on my iPad if I could.
But when I first heard this rumor over the weekend I felt in shock (and sick). I hate Facebook along with its smug a-hole founder. Never even had an account (although I do feel I missed out on some old connections and such but refused to be a part of FB). From a business standpoint I guess it makes sense. FB would get a mature, fast and feature rich browser (One they could data mine to no end, including emails).
But the very last version of Opera that was released, shall this buyout happen, will also be the last version I ever use. Opera has a very clear and good privacy statement. I trust Opera. But Facebook, forget it!
In past few days I have spent time downloading and trying pretty much every other popular browsers. From Chrome to PaleMoon. I could live with one of them but nothing really compelling for me. They all have already been uninstalled and am done trying. Opera would be surely missed.
What makes you trust Opera any more already? They're already quite capable of logging every domain you visit, via the fraud prevention mechanism (Enabled by default). Whether Opera are recording this I don't know, but you can probably be quite certain that Facebook will, if they acquire it.
That's exactly the fear – Opera doesn't have much reason to link recorded data back to you, facebook does, and is known to permanently store all available data. And it already knows way too much about you.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that a Google Search thing, not a Chrome thing? The Google toolbar in Firefox had the option to upload your browser's entire history to the Search History site, but that's not built into Chrome, afaik.
Chrome does have a sync service, but it requires user action to activate, allows the user to pick what they want synced, and allows syncing omnibox history, not the complete browser history.
Call me a zealot, but if there's one piece of software that I feel ought to be open source, it's a critical centerpiece of modern communication like the web browser. As such, Opera is already not an option for me. In fact, a Facebook acquisition could even change that if the new regime decided to produce a Chromium equivalent.
To me it's how a brand builds trust. Sure you can build trust with open source (afterall, if you can see the source code and build it yourself, it CAN be trusted), but you can also build trust by not being dodgy.
I've been using Opera since its paid days, and despite having switched browsers every year or so, I've still gravitated back to Opera as my day-to-day browsing browser. That's the value of their brand.
Sadly, there is no viable alternative. I use Chrome as my second browser, I occasionally use Firefox and although they are both great browsers, they offer nothing close to Opera. No configurability whatsoever and no extra features you are accustomed to.
Why would you use Chrome, but not the potential FB Opera? Google has just as much of a stake in your information as Facebook, but that hasn't led to their browser being a privacy vulnerability.
Not really. Firefox has a minimal featureset out of the box, but extensions are allowed to do a lot more. With a few extensions you can get nifty new features and UI customizations that Opera just doesn't support.
I assume that regular Opera users lean toward the geeky side of the spectrum. The same demographic has a pretty sour taste for facebook and Zuckerberg. There's no way Opera usage will remain what it is if FB is running the show.
