Ad-free Opera Is Now Free

[John Carney]

I may be looking in the wrong place, but I haven't seen any reference to the fact that the web browser Opera has changed their business plan. Until the latest version, there was a free-but-ad-supported browser and a paid-but-ad-free version. Now, the browser is completely free and ad free. The company apparently plans to make its money with service contracts and through the sale of related products.

 

I haven't had much experience with Opera but I'm trying it out, now that it's free.

 

http://www.opera.com

[TCH-Don]

Thanks John.

 

There was a thread about this in great links.

[j2k4b]

I was a huge fan of Firefox back in the day Firebird was it's name. I was having tons of problems with FF so I decided to try the Opera free verison. I didn't like the ads but found it was very stable, neat, and fresh. I purchased a ad-free copy earlier this year and I am still using it. I will never go back to Firefox. I am glad Opera is ad-free. Now everyone can enjoy it.

[TCH-Bruce]

There was a thread about this in great links.

That was a one day only deal, this was announced yesterday.

[TCH-Rob]

While I have a copy from the free day, I dont often use it except for viewing web pages in it to see if it looks as it should. I do think it is a good thing though that they are offering it free with no adverts.

[carbonize]

I used to use Opera 6.x but feel it has gone downhill since version 7. It now supports sloppy HTML and CSS like IE does which, as I'm sure many will agree, is bad as it encourages sloppy HTML and CSS. I do think Opera are starting to get desperate for a market share as why else would they be looking at incorporating a bit torrent client into the browser?

[j2k4b]

I downloaded 8.5 lastnight and all I could say is I am impressed. You all should at least try it.

 

Ohhh Yeah... It is still free!

[carbonize]

I already have it. As a web designer/scripter I have four browsers (Firefox, IE, Opera and lynx) I check my work in as should all web designers/coders.

[cajunman4life]

I agree with you on that carbonize. Although I usually don't check my work in Lynx until later, I hit the others during the development process.

 

I've recently started using Opera as my primary browser, and am beginning to appreciate even more a good quality site design (as if I didn't before, but still).

[Deverill]

Read an interesting blurb on why Opera is free now...

The company expects to recoup lost sales revenue after striking deals with Google and other online search companies.

 

The deals will give Opera a cut of advertising revenues when, for example, a search typed into the browser's built in search engine window is directed to Google advertising.

 

Von Tetzchner is confident that this advertising revenue will generate more than enough income to compensate for giving away Opera - if the company can persuade enough people to switch to their browser, of course.

 

I hope it works... but not well enough to hurt firefox

[cajunman4life]

I'll start running my searches through the Opera UI from now on

[abinidi]

That will be helpful, but not only do you have to run your searches through the Opera UI, but you also have to click on the advertising links that are displayed.

[cajunman4life]

When you say that, you mean advertising links that are displayed for instance when I run a google search?