Download.com Christmas Mystery

December 23, 2004 · by Haavard

It is interesting to read the reviews at download.com, and it is also interesting to note how Opera's rating has apparently dropped lately. Even more interesting is the fact that Opera 7.54 with Java has 89%, while Opera without Java only has 75%. It is as if someone has decided to link to only one of the products, asking people to go there and vote, perhaps even encouraging negative reviews...

Conspiracy theories aside, if you read the negative reviews, it seems that a lot of them are saying that "Opera is great and all, but Firefox is better". While that is a perfectly legitimate opinion, I don't quite understand why the give Opera a thumbs down if they think it's a nice program. Just because they happen to think something else is better, doesn't mean that they absolutely need to give Opera a thumbs down, does it?

Naive as I may be, I found that the negative reviews were a bit on the harsh side, most of them talking about how Firefox is better and Opera is terrible in just about every way imaginable. Not exactly the Christmas spirit we are all looking for! A great way to end this year would be to get some more balanced reviews for Opera, so here goes:

My Christmas wish for the community this year is to go to download.com and give your honest opinion about Opera!

Since the non-Java version is really suffering, that's where I would like to see more reviews:

Review Opera without Java at download.com

If you feel like bringing more Christmas spirit to the Opera community, you could drop by the Java version as well:

Review Opera with Java at download.com

Again, give your honest opinion about Opera, and please don't go spamming other products with bad reviews even if you happen to prefer Opera! Remember, Opera users are generally open-minded, and we don't go around mindlessly bashing something just because we prefer something else.

With this, I wish you all a merry Christmas, and a happy and pleasant New Year! Aside from the recently released Opera beta, next year will have good things in store for Opera users.

I'll return to the latest Opera beta in a later journal entry, but for now, have a good one!

Readers' comments 8

Left under the original article, as archived.

Sushubh23. December 2004, 20:43:11
we don't need no download.com's approval on how cool opera is. if other product user's feel jealous enough to do that, its a shame. opera users are cool and they do not resort to such low activities.
billbuff23. December 2004, 20:43:11
I believe voting in download.com for Opera is a damn good idea. Would really like to see a wider usage of this superior browser. JmHO.

[email protected]/[email protected]
eugenetswong23. December 2004, 20:43:11
It's too bad that registration is required. I'm becoming uncomfortable with giving out my personal information. Maybe I'll do it in the future.

That being said, I'd rate Opera very highly. I'm tired of people comparing other browsers to this. This is the best. Period.
haavard23. December 2004, 20:43:11
You can just use a throwaway e-mail address, for example one from www.operamail.com. And if you don't want to, you don't have to tell them about yourself. Just fill in some random nonsense.
Bill_P23. December 2004, 20:43:11
If you look at the negative comments you see paterns

Some comments are not fair:
1) People will bad mouth a product because it has a price
2) They will bad mouth it even though they really haven't given it a try
3) They hate ads, even unintrusive ones. Maybe text ads should be the default.
4) Some are just ignorant, one is unhappy there are no extensions but doesn't say what is missing
5) Some people are FF shills

Some are legitimate (based on 7.54)
1) The interface is busy and cluttered
2) There are site incompatabilities
3) I takes time to really learn
4) Its too different

Lastly - since there is no neutral rating and they don't loves it they must give a negative
haavard23. December 2004, 20:43:11
You don't have to love something or prefer it for your own use to recognize it as a good product. I can say that "Firefox is a very nice browser, even though it doesn't suit my needs as well as Opera does". While saying that, I would probably give it a thumbs up. It's not a bad program. I just happen to prefer Opera.
firstnight23. December 2004, 20:43:11
this phenomenon that you mention at download.com, where Opera with Java tends to be downloaded as much or more than Opera without Java, and often rated higher as well, has been in evidence for about a year, possibly more. i've always found it very odd. possibly people think they would be missing something by getting the smaller download.

i hate to say it, because i'm an American, but most of the truly thoughtless hostile negative comments about Opera tend to come from American FireFox fans. FireFox seems to have a lot of support over here, but Opera, according to some numbers i saw a few weeks ago, supposedly is only used by .25 percent of all American users, only one per 400. the people i've introduced to Opera had never even heard of it before. the people on the net who hAve heard of it all seem to be on the FireFox forums, or are ''professional'', but often poorly informed and biased, software reviewers for online publications.

download.com's 'reader opinions' are seen by a lot of people, so it is important to give good, informed, and fair reviews to Opera to counteract the ignorant negativity that seems so prominent in FireFox users' remarks. if we have to give some false personal data to protect our online security, so be it; that will not change the honesty and validity of our reviews.
mrd23. December 2004, 20:43:11
I read through many of the negative comments and it is rather sad. I even see one poster said it was good, gave every area 5 red blobs, and still gave it a thumbs down saying Firefox is better.

Really rather defeats the purpose of the whole thing doesn't it?