Opera 10 introduces a technology called Opera Unite, that extends your browser to become a Web server. The idea is to enable non-technical people to serve and share content and services from their local computer, such as file sharing, chat rooms, Web hosting, remote access to music files, etc.
In a way, Opera Unite is an opposite trend to Cloud Computing where content is distributed and services are provided from large-scale data centers under the administrative domain of single providers, such as Amazon or Google. Instead, Opera Unite is a technology that borrows from ideas known in P2P and Grid Computing where hybrid user/provider models are common.
I have been a big Opera fan ever since due to the browser’s incredible speed (much faster and less resource-hungry than Firefox, at least on my system). Opera Unite could be the game changer that Opera needs to compete with IE and Firefox. However, it is only a matter of time until Google integrates GTalk, Picasa, etc. with Chrome and Microsoft integrates Office Live with IE in a way that is similarly user-friendly. Back to the Clouds?
Opera has taken a lead in browser-based file sharing that could pay off very soon. In previous versions, Opera already offered a neat built-in Bittorrent client. Now, with Opera Unite, there are much more file-sharing features: easy access control (public, groups, private), easy file system integration, etc. Great job!
Other services make less sense to me, like Web hosting. Only few people are always online (if so, I don’t want to see the electricity bill…) and therefore cannot provide even moderate availability.
