Free Opera, an online hit!

September 21, 2005 · by Haavard

The word about Opera going ad-free has been spreading like wildfire over the net!

Technorati had Opera as the #1 search for a long time, OSNews.com had a record number of submissions for the story on ad-free Opera, and Slashdot has more than 800 comments discussing the new release (most of which seem to be very positive).

And as I write this, a site I learned about quite recently called "digg", which works by people "digging" stories they find interesting to make them appear on the front page, has the story on Opera going free as the top digg this week so far. It has around 800 more diggs than the second most "dugg" story at the moment!

I can hardly wait to see the final download numbers from the 8.5 launch

In addition to the above, there are lots of sites where everyone is talking about Opera. Feel free to comment on this post with a link if you find another site where Opera has made a serious impact.

Thanks to everyone who has been spreading the word!

Readers' comments 6

Left under the original article, as archived.

DolfhinDC21. September 2005, 18:40:56
Yeah Digg is pretty awesome I even saw that somebody submitted a recent blog story of mine!

The news about Opera seems to spread quite fast and most responses are positive even Asla wished Opera success!
troels21. September 2005, 18:44:57
The news was very early on Webmaster World, rather unsurprising because quite a few active members there have used Opera for years and some are active members here, too. And as soon as it was morning in Texas Brett Tabke put the news on the frontpage. He also started an Opera Help Thread.

Might be interesting to know how many referrals they have sent.
Rapier21. September 2005, 19:28:34
Neowin Its Pretty much a Pro FX Community but still got a lot of positive response

FrontPage (Submited by Me)
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=30512&category=main
Forum Thread With posts close to 200 and nearly 10000 Views (Made by me)
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=374647

They even posted about Merlin
http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=30518&category=main
Gabbahead22. September 2005, 00:15:20
Google News had it up as a Tech story and main page mention.

This should be interesting. Currently I'm test-driving Firefox against Maxthon and Opera will make an interesting addition.
eveningdress1. December 2005, 13:09:48
People like free stuff. In the online world, it is very true. It makes sense for Opera to give the browser free. The more people use it, the more access Opera will have. It's about staying in contact with people. Permission marketing is sure to come. Opera gives you something. you may want to give something back too. It's a win win situation.
Hemaworstje4. December 2005, 22:28:36
I mistrust freebies, for a good reason.