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Opera: Put Your Face in Times Square

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

December 12, 2005, 6:41 PM

Opera Software has been known for using offbeat marketing tactics to promote its Web browser, including company CEO Jon von Tetzchner promising to swim from Norway to the United States. Now, Tetzchner is offering to plaster one Opera user's face up on the ABC SuperSign in New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve.

"Opera owes everything to you, the millions of devoted Opera users around the world, and we have rented advertising space at the most high-profile New Year's party in the world to thank you," Tetzchner says. The Opera spot will be shown nine times a day starting December 26. To enter, users must post a photo and the reason why they should be selected to the Opera forum.

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By RADicalSatDude

posted Dec 14, 2005 - 1:07 AM

This best feature is where no popups can hide the address bar, thus showing you the actual source URL, even for secure sites.

JavaScipt options allow you to always show address bar for popups - You know the exact URL of that popup, even for secure sites.

Tools> Preferences>Advanced>Content>JavaScipt Options
Uncheck "Allow script to hide address".

If don't want new windows stealing focus then Uncheck "Allow rasing of windows"

Opera not being No. 1 despite its being nearly complete out of the box, is an example why people still choose IE or FF. It just shows most people are indeed sheep!

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Dec 14, 2005 - 2:06 AM

No!!! it couldnt be that they just dont think opera works for them or that opera isnt anywhere near as known as the other two. NO, that couldnt be it, people are just stupid and choose not to use a browser they've never heard of!

Score: 0

By foxlover

edited Dec 13, 2005 - 2:47 PM

no browser can let you put menu, toolbar icons, address bar, searchbox, all you favorite links in just 2 lines, except firefox, the basic firefox. I try to customize opera to do that, but simply cannot. It will not let you to put icons onto the line where menus are, firefox and IE let you do that. I hate to have lots of empty space around, so I give up opera.

Score: 0

By RADicalSatDude

edited Dec 16, 2005 - 3:28 PM

Examples of how so many people have customized their Opera toolbars from ultra minimal to fully loaded:

http://my.opera.com/comm...rums/topic.dml?id=67529

http://www.neowin.net/fo...ex.php?showtopic=310386

If Opera users are intertested:
Map of Opera Users
http://www.frappr.com/operabrowserusers

Score: 0

By Paradise-FH-

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 11:06 AM

i feel this really grows the brand.

oh wait no it's just silly.

Score: 0

By apexracer

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 9:52 AM

+1 for Opera. I'm a daily user as well. Great browser.

Score: 0

By MCoupeMike

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 9:46 AM

I use Opera everyday... prefer it to firefox and IE.

If you haven't tried using it, you should. It has great features that IE is lacking.

Score: 0

By BadIronTree

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 3:53 AM

Opera JUST RULE ALL

Score: 0

By BklynKid

posted Dec 12, 2005 - 10:08 PM

I love my Opera (since ~4.0) but this money could have been better spent on say a NY Times ad (ala Firefox).

Oh well, not my decision to make.

Score: 0

By jojosupp

posted Dec 12, 2005 - 9:20 PM

Why all the Opera hate? :(

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Dec 12, 2005 - 10:03 PM

I absolutely do not hate opera, I think they have the best browser available with ONE exception. They spend all this money on advertising and gimmicks like the "Swim to the USA" one instead of improving features already in the browser. They add features to a browser and let them stagnate (sort of like microsoft did to IE as a whole) in favor of adding new features which will meet the same fate come the next MAJOR release. I long for the day that opera takes my spot as primary browser, but until it allows an API where 3rd parties can enhance the browser without the user having to wait for the devs to "improve" or add a feature, that wont be happening.

Score: 0

By plings

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 4:19 AM

Actually, you are wrong.

They hardly spend ANY money on advertising. That's the problem.

As for features, they work fine, and are certainly better than the bolted on crap you get for Firefox.

But when it comes to your advertising money comment, you are simply dead wrong.

What other "advertising and gimmicks" did you say they spent money on?

Sigh.

Score: 0

By gawd21

posted Dec 12, 2005 - 7:57 PM

All of this marketing and yet Opera still sucks. Hmmmm. I wonder. Will they ever give the consumer what they want? I want extensions and add-ons not the crap they force you to take. Will Opera ever do this? I don't know. I hope they learn to spend more time and money on that then these unbelievably stupid stunts that no one will ever care about! Stop being facieses and get your brains in the right place!

Score: 0

By zenarcher

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 6:26 AM

I agree completely with your thought on extensions and add-ons. For whatever complaints I see about Firefox, the one feature I like most is exactly that. I want to be able to install a basic browser, then select the specific extensions I want and use. I don't want a bunch of features automatically included that I never use, but prefer to pick and choose ones which enhance my own particular browsing experience. It would be nice to see a lot more software take this approach!

Score: 0

By plings

edited Dec 13, 2005 - 4:21 AM

> All of this marketing and yet Opera still sucks.

All of this marketing? What marketing? Opera hardly ever does marketing.

> Will they ever give the consumer what they want?

You mean a smaller, faster, more functional and secure browser than other alternatives? Sure. It's here already.

> I want extensions and add-ons not the crap they force you to take.

They aren't forcing you to take anything.

But then again, you are a well known Firefox fanboy and Opera basher...

> I hope they learn to spend more time and money on that then these unbelievably stupid
> stunts that no one will ever care about!

And what stunts might that be?

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Dec 15, 2005 - 12:02 PM

They sure are forcing you, by not allowing 3rd party interoperability, they are forcing a user to use a feature that is built in (if one exists) and not giving them the choice of using a 3rd party program which could easily surpass the built in or none-existent functionality

Score: 0

By lemonlovr

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 12:44 AM

As I've said many times before, I think there are two kinds of users: those who want their "add-ons" picked for them and those who want to go out and find their own.

Personally, I would rather trust a team of developers whose job it is to decide which features are the best (and also the best implementation) than to have to sit around for hours looking at loads of "extensions" that all claim to do the same thing but none of them does it exactly the way I want. Truth is, Opera already does it the way I want. If I could trick out Firefox to be exactly like Opera (and I'm sure I could with the right extensions), then that would be great. Problem is, I don't want to have to find, download, and install all of those extensions. I just want to work as soon as I download it. That's what Opera gives me.

Score: 0

By Metshrine

edited Dec 13, 2005 - 12:30 AM

Exactly, marketing is fine, but if a user cannot move from IE to opera seamlessly (I.E., all of their programs and toolbars work without requiring them to learn something new) the users will not move over and the advertising will be for naught. The whole swimming fiasco was the stupidest marketing ploy I've ever seen/heard of. I knew the guy was blowing smoke when he made the claim. What is having your face on time square going to accomplish? I mean, opera should take the money they are spending on ad's and marketing, and put in an extension system. I've read many users wanting this on their forums, but they get flamed off by guys like sigup, to name one of the biggest opponents of extensions in opera, and are left to fend for themselves trying to get things working the way they want. Opera is a superior browser, but it doesnt work with the stuff i want it to, I.E. roboform (for example). Yes, you can customize the browser through its settings to no end, but that doesnt make up for the fact that several of the features included in opera are subpar and have been left to stagnate for a long time. They are added, then forgotten about after the next major release.

In summary, flame me for this post (its inevitable, the next person to reply will probably say something to the effect of "Shut up firefox/IE zealot, stop spreading FUD". They love to cry about users spreading FUD when I have seen plenty of opera users do the same about firefox. BTW, I use firefox, but only because opera wont support what I want. As I said above, opera is a far superior browser. By the way, I know all about UserJS, but that will not allow you to do half the stuff you could with a proper API system that allows 3rd parties to tie into the browser and add functionality (so the dev's can focus their efforts on making the core browser better, as opposed to forcing stuff down the users throats).

GET THE BROWSER TO THE POINT THAT A USER CAN SWITCH SEAMLESSLY WITHOUT HAVING TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS OF RELEARNING SHORTCUT KEYS, HAVING TO ADJUST TO NOT HAVING THE TOOLBARS/SOFTWARE THEY'VE COME TO RELY ON NOT WORKING, THEN START DOING MARKETING STUNTS LIKE THIS ONE.

Score: 0

By plings

edited Dec 13, 2005 - 4:27 AM

> The whole swimming fiasco was the stupidest marketing ploy
> I've ever seen/heard of.

FIASCO?! It cost them ZERO money, and spread all over the web! That is not a fiasco. It was a huge success!

> I knew the guy was blowing smoke when he made the claim.

No s***, Einstein! It was a humorous stunt to generate publicity. And it worked! You would have to be stupid to think he could actually swim across.

> opera should take the money they are spending on ad's and marketing,

OPERA DOESN'T SPEND ANY MONEY ON ADS AND MARKETING. THIS IS A FIRST FOR OPERA!

How hard can this be to understand? DO YOU EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT OPERA?!

> HAVING TO ADJUST TO NOT HAVING THE TOOLBARS/SOFTWARE THEY'VE
> COME TO RELY ON NOT WORKING

The toolbars? What on earth are you talking about? Opera has the standard address bar that all other browsers have too.

Score: 0

By Metshrine

edited Dec 13, 2005 - 4:52 AM

Did I say address bar or did I say toolbar? Instead of coming here to simply flame me, why dont you read my statement. Toolbars, as in the google toolbar, yahoo toolbar, and various other toolbars (that other 3rd party programs add). Yes, opera has features that these toolbars offer built in, but a user wont want to adjust and relearn their habits for a new browser. 90% of users want a browser that works just the way it did before.

Now again, before you sit here and flame me, as I knew some opera user would (totally disregarding the fact that I've praised opera for being the best browser (99% anyways) out there) flame me as they've been proven good at doing on their forums, read what I've typed and dont substitute words that you think fit better or make more sense to you. But anyways, Congrats, You've proven my point. No where in any of my posts in this article's replies have I tried to flame anyone.

Also, for the swimming thing, it was a big success, they got their 4 million downloads, but how many new USERS did that result in? How successful was it really? Any product can get 4 million downloads if they put some claim out there, but downloads != # users.

By the way, why is it that I only see you come on here during an opera discussion thread and begin to flame other users? You rarely have anything constructive to add and always get very defensive about opera as if its something you personally developed. I am sorry, any fan boy, for any product, who gets this worked up over a product really needs to take a breath, sit back, and realize that there is so much more to life than a web browser (or whatever other product you support).

Score: 0

By plings

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 8:43 AM

> Did I say address bar or did I say toolbar?

You said "toolbar", and the address bar is just about the only toolbar visible in Opera by default.

> 90% of users want a browser that works just
> the way it did before.

Maybe, maybe not. Firefox is nothing like IE. Really! It isn't. Yet people switch.

All you need is marketing and a reason. Opera has lacked marketing, until now. Anyone who says that Opera should spend more money on features and less on marketing hasn't been paying attention. Opera has hardly spent ANYTHING on marketing for ten years. It's been a technology company. Unlike Mozilla, which has an OK product, but runs massive marketing campaigns.

> No where in any of my posts in this article's
> replies have I tried to flame anyone.

You have lied about Opera.

> Any product can get 4 million downloads if
> they put some claim out there, but downloads
> != # users.

So? It got the word out about Opera, which was the aim of the stunt. It was all over the place.

Score: 0

By Metshrine

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 1:51 PM

Again, you failed to read my post completely. When I said toolbars, I said that a user wants any toolbars they are using to work when they move browsers, (I.E. the google toolbar, yahoo toolbar, netcraft toolbar, etc) to name a few.

Firefox uses more of the default shortcut keys that IE uses so its easier for people to switch. Yes, you can customize opera's shortcut keys, but what home user is going to take the time to figure that out?

Lied about opera huh? Show me where I made a claim that opera is doing something they never did or said something they never said? Sounds like your upset more about my opinion of the claim the CEO made about swimming the ocean. Instead of accusing me of lying, just admit you're more upset about my opinion.

Score: 0

By lemonlovr

posted Dec 13, 2005 - 12:49 AM

Admitted Opera lover here.... I won't say I'm mad at you, but I'll say this: if Opera doesn't support it it isn't worth using. Granted, I would love Gmail and other advanced web apps to work flawlessly in Opera 9 (once it is released) and I have faith that the Opera developers will eventually achieve that.

As for RoboForm, I have never used it. Having been an Opera user since 3.6 (and exclusively Opera since 6), I have no idea what RoboForm is or what I'm missing. I'd rather use a subpar password manager integrated into the browser than use a separate program anyway.

Remember, it's just a philosphical divide. I prefer simplicity. You prefer...well, I'm not sure. I just want it to work.

Score: 0

By Metshrine

edited Dec 13, 2005 - 5:04 AM

I also have faith in the developers, and I have faith they can put the best features into the browser, but I do think that the user should be allowed an oppurtunity, should it arise, to use a 3rd party program that surpasses the capabilities of built in functionality and satisfies the users needs. Blocking the ability to satisfy a users needs isnt a good thing.

Roboform, www.roboform.com, is a form filler that doesnt require the use of a "notes" feature. You fill your info in once, hit the fill forms button, and it fills the entire form out. it also beats the pants off of wand when it comes to saving login information and allowing you to login quickly to a site. As opposed to having to manually go to a site and hitting ctrl+enter, you go to the logins button on the toolbar and select the site. You are then automatically taken to that site, logged in and left to go about your merry way. Why use subpar functionality if you shouldnt have to? The point of roboform support is for users that move from another browser, they shouldnt have to give up what they are used to in order to switch to another browser and this goes for any 3rd party app (If you use it in your current browser, and are used to it, why should you have to give it up for subpar functionality?)

Score: 0

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