[sc:internet-category ]A few weeks ago the rumors around Opera Software being purchased by Facebook started to make the round. Here’s why I think it would be a bad thing.
Opera has had a long history of being small and fast and a very standards based browser. Facebook is known for being a bloated waste of time 😉
Opera has had the opportunity to create an independent browser, pretty much every other browser is tied tightly to some other agenda:
- Internet Explorer, while better then it once was, is still there to promote Microsoft’s agenda.
- Chrome is there to promote Google’s agenda.
- Safari is there to promote Apple’s agenda.
- Firefox, while not directly tied to anyone, is financially tied to Google in a big way, most of their funding comes from Google.
Firefox’s agenda is perhaps the best, they are not overtly promoting someone else’s agenda, but you have to wonder what would happen if Google asked them to make a change and threaten to pull the advertising deal. Hasn’t happened yet and I don’t think it is likely, but you never know…
So really, all that’s left is Opera, which has always fought above its weight class when it comes to browser standards and innovation.
If Facebook did buy it, wouldn’t they look to make Opera yet another deliver platform for Facebook more than anything else? Is Opera Mini/Mobile the defining asset they would want out of the deal to help them gain in mobile adverstising?
If so would they drop the desktop browser altogether?
There’s pretty much no scenario I can think of that Facebook’s purchase of Opera is good for end users, they all suck pretty badly.
So if your reading Mark, just leave Opera alone, you don’t really need them and with your share price down, perhaps you would be better to spend your time fixing that.
