It’s time for a consistent brand identity that reflects what Opera is about:
We want to enable more people, in more places, to experience what matters, when it matters most.
That’s not what Opera is about. Like literally every single other corporation, Opera is about making money. I suppose we can be more specific and say “Opera is about making money by licensing our browser tech. Except that we threw that out to write another shallow Webkit skin a la Chrome. So it’s about making money by…? Competing with Google?” (Well, that’s probably too much candor for the VP of marketing.) edit: I distracted myself. The point of this paragraph is that their stated identity is generic, totally meaningless, and not fooling anyone.
I’ve always had the feeling that trumpeted but contentless generic schlock like this is a bad sign for a company. It’s an indication that there’s nothing happening on the ground anymore, so the suits in an effort to seem like their company is doing something pick up the one thing they can freely mess with: the “brand identity”. Time will tell in this case, I suppose.
Opera doesn’t need a new brand identity, they need their old browser back.
I used Opera from 2001 up until they switched to Blink, when they dropped the ball so badly I switched to Chromium. Lately I’ve been using Opera again in an attempt to avoid Google, but it’s so similar to Chrome/Chromium that it almost seems silly to not just use Chromium.
If somebody were to ask, the only reason I could give to use Opera is that it’s not from Google, but even that rings hollow because it’s essentially Google underneath. TBH, I almost suspect Chromium has more Google tie-in ripped out than Opera has.
I try it every once in a while, but the interface feels clunky, and the out of the box experience feels somehow dumbed down.
I get annoyed by a bunch of small things like the new tab page showing my “top sites”, but not letting me configure which ones. I also strongly dislike things like “Include suggested sites” and other tie ins with Mozilla and Google.
I get annoyed by a bunch of small things like the new tab page showing my “top sites”, but not letting me configure which ones. I also strongly dislike things like “Include suggested sites” and other tie ins with Mozilla and Google.
I know you meant this as just one example… but anyway, you can disable the suggested sites from the gear menu on the new tab page. You can also pin or remove specific sites. I believe there are plans to offer more control down the road.
What are the other “tie ins” you are thinking of? They should all be there to give some kind of value for the average user, or else we are doing it wrong. (Maybe we are!) Anyway, I believe all interactions from Firefox to Google can be disabled. I’ve disabled some myself.
Things like “Pocket” and auto-update for search engines.
And the extension/add-on ecosystem feels almost spammy. For example, the “FVD Speed Dial” extension I started using has a link in its option menu to its website for the FVD flash downloader/converter.
I guess it just feels like the target audience went from web developers and power users to people who need their search engines updated and follow spam links to affiliate downloads. I don’t feel like I have control over it.
Also, yeah, I concur. After Opera’s switch to the Blink rendering engine it really isn’t interesting anymore. Vivaldi is somewhat interesting though, and it uses the old Presto engine. Not sure why it isn’t open source though.
However, their brand redesign was kind of cool so I thought I would share it.
Also, yeah, I concur. After Opera’s switch to the Blink rendering engine it really isn’t interesting anymore. Vivaldi is somewhat interesting though, and it uses the old Presto engine. Not sure why it isn’t open source though.
Vivaldi also uses the Blink engine, so there is no difference there. I believe they are trying to differentiate by adding many of the browser features that old Opera had.
For me, Presto was the differentiating factor - it was very, very fast, even on legacy machines
Very true, I remember getting very good performance with it on an old emachines tower.
Vivaldi also uses the Blink engine
Sorry, I misread this part of the Wikipedia article and thought it was Presto. I stand corrected, Vivaldi does use Blink.
The browser is aimed at staunch technologists, heavy Internet users, and previous Opera web browser users disgruntled by Opera’s transition from the Presto layout engine to the Blink layout engine, which removed many popular features in the process
Maybe instead of a new brand identity they should focus on making something that doesn’t feel like a weird knock-off third world action figure version of a web browser.
Logo fetishism is my cue that the company is dead. The reason why is that true reputation and branding depends more on things like customer service and a compelling product than on a high priced logo. See also: Google.
Google is definitely not dead; nor is Pepsi, the last really high-profile rebranding I can remember. And Opera’s actually not dead, either; they have $300M in annual revenue, though I can’t for the life of me figure out where it comes from.
I believe it’s almost all from their mobile ad network. They originally got into ad networks in order to acquire inventory for their ad-supported browser, but it’s since become pretty much the main business. They’ve been on an acquisitions spree in that market as well, the biggest being AdColony.
I thought this was about Oprah Winfrey’s brand as I watched the video and then half way through the comments, even thinking to myself, oh man, her old identities totally look like that browser, how confusing. That’s how bad Opera’s brand is. Or maybe just a brain fart.
Wait. Whatever happened to the blogging fire sharing whatever they baked into the browser a while back? I can’t find any references to it now. Didn’t they already make this “services company” switch? But where did the services go?
“These deck chairs aren’t going to rearrange themselves!”
That’s not what Opera is about. Like literally every single other corporation, Opera is about making money. I suppose we can be more specific and say “Opera is about making money by licensing our browser tech. Except that we threw that out to write another shallow Webkit skin a la Chrome. So it’s about making money by…? Competing with Google?” (Well, that’s probably too much candor for the VP of marketing.) edit: I distracted myself. The point of this paragraph is that their stated identity is generic, totally meaningless, and not fooling anyone.
I’ve always had the feeling that trumpeted but contentless generic schlock like this is a bad sign for a company. It’s an indication that there’s nothing happening on the ground anymore, so the suits in an effort to seem like their company is doing something pick up the one thing they can freely mess with: the “brand identity”. Time will tell in this case, I suppose.
Sigh.
Opera doesn’t need a new brand identity, they need their old browser back.
I used Opera from 2001 up until they switched to Blink, when they dropped the ball so badly I switched to Chromium. Lately I’ve been using Opera again in an attempt to avoid Google, but it’s so similar to Chrome/Chromium that it almost seems silly to not just use Chromium.
If somebody were to ask, the only reason I could give to use Opera is that it’s not from Google, but even that rings hollow because it’s essentially Google underneath. TBH, I almost suspect Chromium has more Google tie-in ripped out than Opera has.
Out of curiosity, why don’t you just use Firefox?
I try it every once in a while, but the interface feels clunky, and the out of the box experience feels somehow dumbed down.
I get annoyed by a bunch of small things like the new tab page showing my “top sites”, but not letting me configure which ones. I also strongly dislike things like “Include suggested sites” and other tie ins with Mozilla and Google.
I know you meant this as just one example… but anyway, you can disable the suggested sites from the gear menu on the new tab page. You can also pin or remove specific sites. I believe there are plans to offer more control down the road.
What are the other “tie ins” you are thinking of? They should all be there to give some kind of value for the average user, or else we are doing it wrong. (Maybe we are!) Anyway, I believe all interactions from Firefox to Google can be disabled. I’ve disabled some myself.
Things like “Pocket” and auto-update for search engines.
And the extension/add-on ecosystem feels almost spammy. For example, the “FVD Speed Dial” extension I started using has a link in its option menu to its website for the FVD flash downloader/converter.
I guess it just feels like the target audience went from web developers and power users to people who need their search engines updated and follow spam links to affiliate downloads. I don’t feel like I have control over it.
Yawn. Yet another Chrome clone, after being something more.
Also, should be
design.design tag added.
Also, yeah, I concur. After Opera’s switch to the Blink rendering engine it really isn’t interesting anymore. Vivaldi is somewhat interesting though, and it uses the old Presto engine. Not sure why it isn’t open source though.
However, their brand redesign was kind of cool so I thought I would share it.
Vivaldi also uses the Blink engine, so there is no difference there. I believe they are trying to differentiate by adding many of the browser features that old Opera had.
For me, Presto was the differentiating factor - it was very, very fast, even on legacy machines. Nowadays, Gecko and WebKit have caught up though.
Very true, I remember getting very good performance with it on an old emachines tower.
Sorry, I misread this part of the Wikipedia article and thought it was Presto. I stand corrected, Vivaldi does use Blink.
Maybe instead of a new brand identity they should focus on making something that doesn’t feel like a weird knock-off third world action figure version of a web browser.
Logo fetishism is my cue that the company is dead. The reason why is that true reputation and branding depends more on things like customer service and a compelling product than on a high priced logo. See also: Google.
Google is definitely not dead; nor is Pepsi, the last really high-profile rebranding I can remember. And Opera’s actually not dead, either; they have $300M in annual revenue, though I can’t for the life of me figure out where it comes from.
It is definitely a bad sign, though.
That $300M annual revenue is weird… does Opera have any significant subsidiaries?
I believe it’s almost all from their mobile ad network. They originally got into ad networks in order to acquire inventory for their ad-supported browser, but it’s since become pretty much the main business. They’ve been on an acquisitions spree in that market as well, the biggest being AdColony.
I thought this was about Oprah Winfrey’s brand as I watched the video and then half way through the comments, even thinking to myself, oh man, her old identities totally look like that browser, how confusing. That’s how bad Opera’s brand is. Or maybe just a brain fart.
Wait. Whatever happened to the blogging fire sharing whatever they baked into the browser a while back? I can’t find any references to it now. Didn’t they already make this “services company” switch? But where did the services go?
I could make a 3D print of the logo and put it on my finger to represent my commitment to Opera! Sweet!
Just kidding I’m a Chrome user.