Opera Browser Downloads Increase After Going ‘Free’
Ever since offering their browser for free and dropping the annoying banner ads, the Opera Browser’s downloads have surged to the point of 3 million new Opera users since the update. Nate Mook of BetaNews reports that this rate is four times that of previous Opera releases.
Opera 8.5, which hit the 1 million download mark just 48 hours after its release, puts fresh pressure on Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominance. In fact, Opera has said the majority of downloaders were IE users looking for a safer alternative browser. The free Opera is available on a variety of operating systems in numerous languages.
Why is Opera now free when it used a banner advertising model or paid user model for its previous releases? Opera has renegotiated their search as revenue contract with Google to the point where they no longer need banner ads to support the Opera browser. In browser searches will default to Google search where Opera will be reimbursed with a higher AdWords revenue share than before.
Goes to show even a good product cannot flourish under a management not in sync with the market dynamics. Never too late to adapt. Well done, Opera!
Initially I was highly skeptical of MSN Search. Microsoft is not particularly known for bug-free products which are rammed down customers’ throats.
However, to be fair, the quality of results I have seen on MSN Search are far better than Google, even though I am a die-hard Google fan. MSN Search seems to be less susceptible to SEO spamming (so far).
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This is perhaps the best thing that has happened in the browser landscape. I have been using Opera for ages and the ads never really bothered me. The features provided by this browser are simply mind boggling. I personally prefer it to IE/Firefox. Though I sometimes wistfully wish that they had integrated AdBlock feature in Opera!