5 wishes

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or get my latest posts directly in your mailbox. Thanks for coming to the Foo!

Here in Norway “we” are building a new, shiny (and rooftoppingly expensive) Opera. Norway is also the home of the web browser Opera. Hallvord, a friend, relative and former house-sharer, who is a dancer and works for Opera (the latter one), tagged me to make 5 wishes on how Opera could improve.

Of course I am honored to have been chosen by him, after all I am not using Opera. I have installed it on my mobile, but since that one is a piece of high-tech crab, I rarely get to use that function. When my mobile (SonyEricsson P990i), on a rare occasion, does work, then Opera excels. So, if you have a mobile phone that does not have Opera installed, I can only advise you to hop over to Opera to download their mini browser.

KISS

Opera is free, and according to Chip (Germany’s most senior computer magazine) the safest browser. So why are only 5% of all people using it? Why am I, despite knowing about its agreed superiority, using a different browser?

You have to look at why people use browsers. They are tools to make the information on the internet accessible. As long as the browser of their choice (usually the pre-installed one, in turn usually Windows Exploder) does a decent job, there is little incentive in changing to a different one. It takes time getting to know a new browser, so why bother if one is happy with the current one?

I thus believe that Opera does not need to concentrate on adding further useful features, but making them a) easy to understand and - most importantly, b) easy to use. “Keep it simple, stupid.”

Making a wish

Without further ado, I shall add my 5 wishes for the Opera browser (keeping in mind that I am not an avid Opera user, so I will not focus on specific features, more on general wishes):

1. Shout. Opera has already a browser better than Microsoft, Apple and at least equal to Mozilla (according to Germany’s biggest computer magazine, Chip). Yet only a 5% market share. What this means is that Opera has to find a much better way of getting known. Today, Opera has a geeky, marginalized feeling to it. You deserve better. Spend some money on good marketing people. Learn from Apple: Everyone knows about the iPhone. Revamp you website to this concept. Make some better-than monetary offers to people who blog about Opera. How about a youTube contest on showing the best commercial about Operas simplicity?
2. Shout more. A combined effort by Opera, Mozilla/Firefox and Safari to let Microsoft users know that there is more to life than the Internet Exploder.
3. Get rid of legal lingo. Upon installing Opera, one has to read a lengthy legal text. Instead I’d love a few phrases that give me the ballpark figure. (Take the Creative Commons as an example.) Coming to think of it, I am tired of all the legal text one is supposed to read before installing software. I don’t think anyone reads that, and in no other segments of daily life is one forced to gulp down legalized text. Imagine having to sign a paper every time you buy a hamburger, take a taxi or go to the movies. But I digress. Would be a cool PR gag for Opera to quit itself of that.
4. Opera for the iPhone. It seems that the iPhone is about to establish itself as a new standard for mobile browsing. Opera have to come up with a better browsing experience to stay in the market of this segment.
5. BrowsedSearch™. A feature that keeps track of all websites I have visited and then can be searched.

Part of the tagging game is to pass the buck on to 5 fellow bloggers. I would like Douglas Karr (this really is about Marketing and Technology, eh?), Yvonne (I see that your blog is back), Douglas T. (thoughtful thoughts), Reyn (get out of bed) and of course Steve Jobs (the fakey one) to comment on how the Opera browser could be improved. Instructions are here.