My Opera News - Sneak preview of upcoming My Opera site

Sneak preview of upcoming My Opera site

By Fredrik Anderssonfred. Saturday, February 17, 2007 5:00:00 PM

Hi, I've got good news. We are launching a major My Opera upgrade in less than a month.

We have been working on this for quite some time now and we are exited about it.

There's many new features and improvements in the code, but the most noticeable change is of course the design. I tried a number of different designs before I got it right. The design process even included using water colors for painting and then scanning it.

The first screenshot shows the My Opera home page with news, featured users and featured photos. (note: the screenshot is taken from our internal test server and is using test content, so some things such as the news headers and news images do not match)

The second screenshot is from a new section called "people". It has almost the same content as the users about page but with standard community design. The people section will make it easier for you to find and browse user profiles. We have some cool plans for this section in the future, but the first version will be quite simple.

Another big change is that the account pages has the standard community design. This means that when you edit your profile, send messages, etc you will stay in the community design.

We have also added more blog sidebar customization features. You will be able to turn on/off things and there's new features such as "latest blog comments".

There's a lot of other small changes and we'll post more about it later.

CPU, schmepeuFw: Monkey business

Comments

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babox # Saturday, February 17, 2007 5:11:41 PM

The new design is great

and the new features too!!

I can't wait!

David Blangstrupdavidcrickett # Saturday, February 17, 2007 5:16:03 PM

Looks good, though I miss some creative corners taken to avoid a too corporate look...

Sarah angel292005 # Saturday, February 17, 2007 5:22:50 PM

Awesome, can't wait to use it.

andrewshikaka # Saturday, February 17, 2007 5:34:00 PM

Fred: those opera hats look nice, is there any competition where i might get a hold of one of those? ^_^ I always miss those 'first 50' and 'the best widget' (i cant code :~~ ) stuffs :=/

cant wait for the upgrade ^^

Matt Coxcoxy # Saturday, February 17, 2007 6:11:57 PM

Hmm, like some stuff, not so sure on others. It's all a bit grey.

Funny to see me on the front page of your designs.

present daylusciousapparatus # Saturday, February 17, 2007 6:39:52 PM

Goodie.

MichaelDeathfragger # Saturday, February 17, 2007 9:57:25 PM

That sounds realy great!!!

Tamil # Saturday, February 17, 2007 9:57:54 PM

for new features.

MichaelDeathfragger # Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:06:50 PM

"Will Google Adsense modules be appearing?"
THAT's a good question

Fredrik Anderssonfred # Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:07:48 PM

Google Adsense is not included in the features this time, but we are thinking about it for the future.

Rafald.i.z. # Saturday, February 17, 2007 10:46:55 PM

Please don't kill http://my.opera.com/userName/xml/info with update.

Cleanclean # Saturday, February 17, 2007 11:38:37 PM

Very nice ... particularly the People section! Goes even more towards forstering that sense of community!

'Concise' is the word that comes to mind for the new design.

You don't have to go hunting for things from the look of it ... it's all there in front of you!

Now ... sorry if this is slightly off-topic, but I suppose this post (and, indeed, this particular Blog, which mentions upcoming features of the My.Opera pages) might be a good place to ask/mention the following:

Browsing the Internet (as is my wont), I've noticed that some WordPress Blogs out there are using what I consider to be one of the most horrible creations that have ever sprung forth in the several billion year history of life on this planet: 'Snap Live'.

'Snap Live' is a combination of slow-loading scripts and (get this) pop ups (!) that attack when you so much as hover your mouse over a link anywhere on the page.

The pop up provides a graphical preview of the page the link goes to (also slow-loading). It can apparently be turned off by Blog admins, but not visitors (which means, now, that if I find myself about to click on a link to a WordPress Blog, I think twice, and avoid them like the plague).

I'm so worried about the thought of this horrid, horrid 'feature' one day insinuating itself into the Opera corner of the Web that I'm about ready to start sacrificing small animals and chanting!

Quell my fears ... ?

(Not that I really believe the My.Opera folks would introduce SnapLive to Opera - they're too smart and too cool for that!)

AntonCaptainSeagull # Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:08:43 AM

looks sweeeeeet! and I knew that Opera People are my kind of People when they buy the water colors to work on the internet!

Edward Piercyedwardpiercy # Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:31:44 AM

I'm a little unclear on the account pages maintaining a "community
design." As for the sidebar options upgrade, that sounds GREAT. Thanks,
OC.

galadriel # Sunday, February 18, 2007 1:35:50 AM

Oooo looks good. Can't wait

Keiki Ichikawakeiki # Sunday, February 18, 2007 1:50:57 AM

nice look and feel

Geoff GirardinG-off # Sunday, February 18, 2007 1:55:35 AM

I approve.

Ryan Octavianusphilry4n # Sunday, February 18, 2007 2:20:47 AM

very nice

for the new features

jeffyhighnote # Sunday, February 18, 2007 3:38:06 AM

coolness

Sykora Skywavesykora # Sunday, February 18, 2007 4:57:14 AM

I'm slavering in anticipation...

Umman ŞahinerUmman # Sunday, February 18, 2007 8:27:08 AM

for the new features

.edDotEd # Sunday, February 18, 2007 8:51:34 AM

excit.ed

Aminamintaka # Sunday, February 18, 2007 10:15:37 AM

Amazing

orsomannaro # Sunday, February 18, 2007 10:18:32 AM

Very nice... i'm waiting these innovations!

Antonie PotgieterContrid # Sunday, February 18, 2007 11:17:29 AM

Wow...this looks great! Can't wait to use it! Thanks.

K a Y L apurelight # Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:09:40 PM

look good!!

to use it and

to the new features..

Allanricewood # Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:45:32 PM

Looking very much forward to the new thingies on the sidebar.

Good overall initiative

agony # Sunday, February 18, 2007 12:54:12 PM

DO WANT!

Herr SchlauschlauEiknubis # Sunday, February 18, 2007 1:23:22 PM

lookin' forward to the new features too. but i'm hopin that my user-css will still work after the update

took me soooooooo long to make it work... ;o)

amazonboy # Sunday, February 18, 2007 2:40:15 PM

Nice design!

jen leighj.leigh # Sunday, February 18, 2007 4:04:05 PM

it looks pretty amazing- can't wait to check it out!

Dariodalu # Sunday, February 18, 2007 4:39:49 PM

It looks great!

One things that I miss is a feature I only found on mixi.jp: ashiato

It's basically a list of the latest 30 comunity members who passed by your page. You can click on their names and go to their page.

It seems so simple but it's really neat! For many many people it is ok to just read a blog without commenting, but this simple thing gives a chance to make a move, and maybe find someone who shares the same interests.
So you can send a simple " I saw you passed by my page, thanks a lot. I think Your blog is interesting/funny/rocks" that can start a conversation.

This is what makes a community. not the thingies on the sidebar (they're cool, but...)

softwareentwicklung # Sunday, February 18, 2007 5:40:39 PM

Good idea. Looks great.

EmanueleEngelium # Sunday, February 18, 2007 5:45:04 PM

Very Nice. Opera Community rulez

Fredrik Anderssonfred # Sunday, February 18, 2007 5:55:22 PM

dalu, we actually have that feature in the new update

johbluejoblue84 # Sunday, February 18, 2007 7:27:24 PM

La verdad es que opera comunity ya necesitaba un cambio...y la verdad es que este me encanta!!!

Ánimo!!!

asbasb1 # Sunday, February 18, 2007 8:45:20 PM

ooh
it's great

Mayur # Sunday, February 18, 2007 8:56:11 PM

cant wait to see it! i am sure it will be a great update for all my.opera users. keep it up!

Mauro GestosoGestzoso # Sunday, February 18, 2007 9:40:55 PM

Sweet! Love it.

Alexander GreenAlexander_Green # Sunday, February 18, 2007 10:02:03 PM

Clean and fresh design ftw

Saddle Magic # Monday, February 19, 2007 1:54:43 AM

This explains why there have been so few little fixes going on around the community these last couple months. Bring it on

Daniel Sitnikdanielcs # Monday, February 19, 2007 4:14:37 AM

Hmm, like some stuff, not so sure on others. It's all a bit grey.

Yeah, I agree Coxy.
I think it could use some more red.

Kc4 the Greatklingoncowboy4 # Monday, February 19, 2007 6:15:33 AM

all the change in the world is stressful

...then again it isn't that bad unlike Microsoft... changing their whole look on everything for 95, then again for XP, and now Vista.

Vetle Roeimvetler # Monday, February 19, 2007 8:37:45 AM

Who's that handsome guy in that second picture?!

Knut Remi "DrLaunch" Løvlidrlaunch # Monday, February 19, 2007 9:03:02 AM

I love the new design. Looks really fresh and user friendly.

Originally posted by garydenness:

Another question that I've asked a coupla times, long ago, but didn't get an answer - if I use up my 300mb, can't Opera allow me to purchase extra space?! I don't wanna start a new blog!!!

Wow! Great idea! That would be a great way to earn money on My Opera.

dineshdinesh.dinny # Monday, February 19, 2007 3:14:30 PM

east or west opera is the best

Gilaras DrakesonDrakeson # Monday, February 19, 2007 7:15:43 PM

I think there are more categories that are needed in the community "gallery", more than the ones in the "customize" tab. One I am especially intersted in is a gallery for "Opera Show" templates. I have already suggested this in the forum, you can read it here:

http://my.opera.com/community/forums/topic.dml?id=178352

It also includes another suggestion about blog templates.

Thanks for the great work.