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DJYSRV

A blog mostly about the Opera browser

March 2006

( Monthly archive )

Dolphins Surfing the Internet with Opera Mini

Friday, 31. March 2006, 16:36:22

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Dolphins Using Opera Mini to Surf the Net

A marine biologist at Sea World in San Diego, CA, has announced that he taught a group of dolphins there to communicate with humans via the Internet using the Opera browser. Robert S. Perry, PhD, a marine biologist, held a press conference this morning to explain his research results.

According to Perry he created a large underwater keyboard with buttons the size of bagels which the dolphins push with their snouts. Each key gives off a distinctive high frequency sound at a pitch which allows the dolphins to associate graphic shapes on each key with a specific sound.

"As you know," Perry said, "dolphins have terrific hearing so it is only natural to use sound to help them communicate with us. I limited the keypad to just ten buttons because I felt it was the optimum number. The keypad has ten buttons like a cell phone. Perry said he hooked up Opera mini to the keypad because it is already designed to surf the Internet with that interface.

Plus Perry says, Opera has a office right in San Diego so he got lots of help.

"The kid who came over was dynamic, young, hip, and wanted to talk to me about viral marketing. He even had an earing. Once I convinced him there was a higher calling in science, he took the plunge and helped me to the max."

The dolphins were trained to associate sound with key buttons. So the next step was to associate the sounds with messages. For instance, the dolphins were trained to ask for fish, toys, or quiet time.

After a while Perry said the dolphins got bored so he had to think up new things to keep their interest. That's when he hit on the idea of submerging a giant plasma screen underwater and teaching the dolphins to call up images on it by using the keyboard. He hooked up a personal computer, on dry land, to the Internet and set it to Google Images as the home page.

"The dolphins went nuts," Perry said. "They got very excited when they realized when they hit the right combinations of keys they could see pictures of other dolphins, tuna, squid, or people like their trainers."

One unhappy result occured when the dolphins scored a picture of a killer whale. The whales are predators and hunt dolphins for food. When they saw the giant image of the whale on the underwater plasma screen, the dolphons fled to the furthest corner of the pool and had to be coaxed back to use the keypad again.

"The way we did it," Perry said, "is that we shrunk the image of the whale down to the size of a twinkie. That made it look like the whale was far away, and the dolphins came back from of their end of the pool and used the keypad again."

For now the dolphins are still using the keypad, but Seaworld has put a dolphin friendly filter on the Internet interface to keep the animals happy.

Perry says the next step is to establish a common vocabulary with the dolphins to try to understand more about what they are thinking. He's hoping the Opera mini will continue to serve his research well.

Contact Robert S. Perry, PhD, Sea World, San Diego, CA


Mozilla plans profit sharing - sort of

Friday, 24. March 2006, 14:33:07

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In a previous blog post I reported that the Mozilla Foundation, which develops and releases the Firefox web browser and the Thunderbird email program, had pulled in tens of millions of dollars based on search advertising deals with Google, Amazon, and other web portals. Published reports in the computer trade press put the amount of revenue for 2005 at $72M USD. This figure is in dispute but the order of magnitude of the revenue stream is not.

The question, of course, is what Mozilla plans to do with all that money? With fewer than 50 full time employees, Mozilla relies on the free labor of thousands of programmers around the world to develop its products under the opens source banner. Well, now comes the monkey wrench in the open source gearbox. Some people who worked on Firefox now feel like chumps having donated their time, talent, and energy only to see a few folks rake in the cash. To its credit the Mozilla foundation has figured out it needs to find a way to share the wealth.

According to a report on CNET, the foundation plans to directly fund developers and community programming projects that support open source projects. Here's a condensed version of the news report.

Mozilla plans to fund developer community

By Ingrid Marson, CNET
Story last modified Thu Mar 23 06:41:30 PST 2006

The Mozilla Foundation is planning to use some of its millions of dollars in revenues to fund active members of its developer community. Mitchell Baker, the chief executive of the Mozilla Corporation, the commercial subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, said Mozilla plans to put some of its excess revenues back into the community.

"The Mozilla Group--the foundation and the corporation--has a set of employees that provide a critical mass where things can happen, but it is only a piece of the project. There are vast numbers of things that happen outside our employee base," she said. "We have a commitment that while we have funds beyond our operating levels, some of it should to go to community members. We want to do that in a way that promotes the community."

[snip]

"There's not a model in the open-source community that we can point to and copy," she said. "We have contributors spread around the world doing a range of different things and we need to work out what would make sense for them. We don't want to set up a model, have a big PR event about it, disperse the money and then find out it has no effect or gets to the wrong people."

Though a number of open-source projects, such as JBoss and MySQL, have used their revenues to hire contributors, it is relatively unusual that money is put straight back into the community, according to Rishab Ghosh, the program leader of an EU-funded open-source research project at Dutch research institute MERIT.


OK, this sounds a lot better than another Silicon Valley take-the-profits-and-run story. Obviously, Mozilla has its work cut out for it in terms of figuring out how to share its profits without becoming, de facto, a global body shop for open source programmers. There is a lot of talent out there and finding a way to shape it constructively to advance open source projects could be Mozilla's biggest challenge to date. If they are successful, it could also be their biggest accomplishment.



Gates - Microsoft late to market with IE7 & VISTA; Office 2007!

Tuesday, 21. March 2006, 14:24:21

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Bill Gates told the audience at a computer trade show this week Microsoft made a mistake in waiting to build new innovations in its own browser technology, Internet Explorer. A few days later Microsoft announced Windows Vista, the newest version of its PC operating system, would be delayed until winter 2007. News media reports gave conflicting reasons for the delay including security and marketing considerations. The delay surprised Wall Street analysts. Last week CEO Steve Ballmer promoted Vista to senior executives of large corporate customers in New York, announcing a $500 million marketing campaign for the product.

Industry analysts said there are several reasons for the delay. Some features won't be ready, some hardware manufacturers won't have PCs ready to run all versions of Vista, and Microsoft wants the marketing space to itself in the post Christmas season rather than competing with general merchandising for advertising space and media attention.

Would someone please get Mr. Gates a tissue for his crocodile tears about the delay of IE7? Come on. Since when did a monopolist worry about technological innovation? The only reason Microsoft is finally getting off its stand pat position on its desktop browser is competition from Firefox and Opera. Opera is developing version 9 of its desktop browser releasing weekly builds of the preview edition. Firefox announced this week the ALPHA version of version 2 of its browser product.

Gates put a remarkable spin on the firm's answer to the wake up call from browser competitors.

According to computer trade press reports, Gates said the company is building innovations into IE to improve the user experience, enhance security, and add next-generation technologies such as RSS (Really Simple Syndication). He said Microsoft already is looking ahead to the next two releases of IE, and expects the next version, IE 7, to be broadly adopted once it is released later this year.

"In a sense we're doing a 'mea culpa' in saying we've waited too long for a new browser release," Gates said during his talk to kick off Microsoft's first show for designers and developers of high-impact Web sites. "We are very immersed in the browser as a platform."

IE 7 will be included in the Windows Vista operating system, which will now ship in 2007. Microsoft said it will offer a version for Windows XP at the same time. Really?

Readers should realize that Microsoft's so-called minimum configuration of a PC ready to run Windows Vista is probably just half of what you will really need. The main product will require a 64-bit dual core Intel-based PC with at least 1 Gb of memory and a high end video card. You'll want at least a 19-inch flat screen monitor running 1280 x 1024 resolution with a fast refresh rate. Expect to pay $1,200 to $2,000 for this machine in 2007.

Frankly, unless someone comes along with a real killer application that I can't do without, I see no reason to make that kind of investment just for a new version of Microsoft's operating system.

UPDATE

Office delayed as well.

Microsoft delays Office relaunch
BBC 3/24/06

Office 2007, like Windows Vista, will now arrive next year. Microsoft has put back the consumer launch of its new Office software suite to 2007, to coincide with the delayed start date for Windows Vista.

[snip]

But a version will be available for corporate customers from November 2006. Microsoft confirmed that the mainstream launch of its new Office 2007 system would also be delayed to January. This will enable Microsoft to market it in tandem with Vista.

The phrase that comes to mind in response is, "I'm from Missouri. Show me." This is a short hand phrase for profound skepticism. The BBC report also notes that Microsoft has replaced several key executives responsible for the Vista operating system and the next verion of Office. For a firm that has trampled many others with its clodhoppers many wonder is it really about marketing or is the Redmond software giant tripping over its own feet?

Microsoft's biggest challenge will be the value of its own products already in the hands of customers. Windows XP and Office 2003 work well enough. For a corporate customer with thousands of desktops there has to be a real value in buying the next generation of the operating system and office suite. Of course it is no small matter [drumroll please] to consider the cost of hardware upgrades to take advantage of the top end versions of these products. The best business advice anyone can offer is to wait for the first service pack of new editions of Microsoft software before upgrading.


Click fraud's insidious threat to the web

Sunday, 19. March 2006, 14:50:29

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A New Case of Offering a Slice of Pie When There is No Pie

A "bunko game" is not a new Internet online passion. It is the act of swindling by some fraudulent scheme. Click fraud is a "bunko game" and Google just paid $90 million USD to settle a suit with advertisers who have claims about being cheated going back to 2002.

Click fraud could be a threat to any Internet web site or enterprise that depends on advertising supported search revenues. It isn't the web site operator who usually is the perpetrator of click fraud. Usually, they are the victim, along with the advertisers.

According to an article in the Washington Post this week, "The two most prevalent types of fraud are competitive sabotage -- rivals clicking to drive up ad costs for competitors -- and affiliate spam -- affiliates clicking on ads appearing on their own sites to boost their share of ad revenue from Google or Yahoo."

The Post article also notes, "Cynics fear that the search engines are too afraid of how much revenue they might lose to truly commit to fighting click fraud."

The problem has gotten so bad, and click fraud may be more prevelant than admitted by search engine giants like Google or Yahoo, that some analysts are concerned it could burst the current Internet boom like a birthday party balloon. If advertising click through rates cannot be trusted, then advertisers will either stop using Internet search as a medium or the market will shrink to those very large advertisers who have the resources to police their own click through rates. Either way the volume of Internet advertising, and the content that is supported by it, could shrink dramatically over a very short period. It won't take much for all the small 'mom-an-pop' advertisers in the so-caled "long tail" to turn tail and run away from having anything to do with Internet advertising.

Further, online content providers who previously relied on Internet advertising will either shift to a subscription business model (prepaid or pay-as-you go) or go out of business. If you think there is a "digital divide" now, just wait until free Internet web sites roll up their virtual sidewalks and ask for a cover charge at the door before you login.

Things that Go Bump in the Night

What does this mean for Opera? It certainly is something that likely keeps the the firm's top executives awake at night. Why? The reason is Opera changed revenue models in Fall 2005. It dropped licensing fees for the Opera desktop and shifted gears to gain revenues from click through advertising based on online search agreements with Google, Amazon, and others. Opera renegotiated its search as revenue contract with Google and dropped banner ads supporting the desktop browser. Browser searches now default to Google search where Opera is paid with a higher AdWords revenue share than before.

Opera's "mini software for mobile devices has a similar revenue producing deal with Google. Google supplies the default search function for Opera Software's mobile browser software.

The very real threat to Opera is that click fraud could undercut critical revenues for the firm. With total revenues of just $23M in 2005 Opera cannot afford to see its search revenue returns sliced and diced by scam artists. Opera isn't alone in this boat. Mozilla's Firefox, which reportedly had $70M in search advertising revenues in 2005 faces a similar threat. While the two organization are competitors for search revenues, they have in common a heavy reliance on Google, Amazon, and other search giants for click through rates.

Is Google's Success Threatened by Click Fraud?

This isn't a problem that Opera can solve by itself. Opera relies on Goolge for revenues and that's where the problem really lives. First of all, Google, which denied at its annual meeting earlier this month that click faud was a problem, needs to get its head out of the sand and address the problem head on. BusinessWeek ripped Google for not doing enough to stop the problem. A very real threat is that Wall Street analysts might take a second look at Goolge's stock price if they believe revenues are undercut by click fraud.

It is understandable why Google sought to minimize the problem at its annual meeting. Click fraud is the monster under the bed, the boogie man in the closet, and very much the firm's worst nightmare. The issue is how much of Google's $6B in search revenues comes from click fraud. Google has a lot more to lose than Opera, but then the entire Internet has a lot to lose if Google's success turns out to be built on a house of cards. This is a case where the players need to get their act together and solve the problem.

Here's the rest of the story . . .

&*&*&*

In Game of Click and Mouse, Advertisers Come Up Empty

By Leslie Walker
Washington Post
Thursday, March 16, 2006; Page D01

. . . click fraud may be far more common than search engines are willing to admit. Over the past year, click fraud has mushroomed into a problem so thorny that some analysts fear that it could bring the high-flying Internet economy to its knees.

[snip]

If revenue from paid links suddenly were to shrink or dry up, you could kiss a lot of Web sites goodbye.

Google has repeatedly pooh-poohed click fraud, contending that it is a minor annoyance that it has under control with automated detection technology. At a meeting with analysts two weeks ago, chief executive Eric Schmidt said click fraud "is not a material issue." Co-founder Sergey Brin said such cases amount to "a small fraction" of Google's ad clicks.

But six days later, Google surprised analysts when it agreed to settle an Arkansas class-action lawsuit by setting aside $90 million worth of ad credits to advertisers that can show invalid click charges dating to 2002.

[snip]

Some analysts worry that Google is rushing to establish a legal precedent that could undermine a more serious click-fraud suit pending in federal court in California. That suit, which alleges that Google knows that click fraud is rampant and has not taken significant steps to prevent it, will be considered for class-action status at a hearing in May.

[snip]

For $29 or so, anyone can buy fake traffic generator software such as Smart HitBot, Fake Hits Genie and Fakezilla, programs that can send bogus traffic to any Web page or ad.

But click-fraudsters have to watch out because more and more electronic sleuths are trying to catch them. Start-ups with names like Click Tracy, Click Detective and WhosClickingWho analyze traffic and tell advertisers about suspicious activity, such as a surfer in Malaysia repeatedly clicking on ads for a dentist in Baltimore.

Established Web analytic firms are adding fraud-detection capabilities, too. ClickTracks, for example, recently started a service that analyzes 20 variables surrounding each click and compares them with historical data to determine which are legitimate.

Jessie Stricchiola, president of Internet ad consultancy Alchemist Media Inc., said the big stumbling block that search engines face in combating fraud is lack of access to evidence that could prove it -- namely, what customers do after clicking on ads. Bogus visitors almost never buy anything, while a certain percentage of legitimate customers do. Advertisers, however, are reluctant to share sales data with the search engines.

Stricchiola is pushing for standards in Internet ad auditing. She recently teamed with Fair Isaac Corp. to study whether its formulas for detecting credit card fraud might help identify click-fraud.


Getting over 'so what' on "Acid Test" for browsers

Friday, 17. March 2006, 15:12:42

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Why care about the browser "Acid Test?"

The Web Standards Project online Acid Test for web browser occasionally stirs up computer trade press interest, but few end-users understand what the topic means to them. The real issue less about the end-user experience and more about a cost savings campaign by developers who are frustrated over the lack of web site software standards. Also, some browser firms, like Opera, and their users, are frustrated by web sites that won't display properly because they are coded in closed proprietary formats.

As part of the campaign of opening the web, in April 2005 the Web Standards Project published a online test of the compliance of a web browser with software technologys standards. Any browser could match its software code agains the test and get instant results online whether it passed or not.

The test is really an effort to draw a line in the sand between compliance with open industry standards and exclusionary web sites based on closed proprietary formats. The team that prepared the Acid Test wrote, "Today, the Web Standards Project (WaSP) is putting the makers of Web browsers and Web design tools on notice by announcing Acid2, a test designed to expose flaws in the implementation of mature Web standards such as HTML, CSS, and PNG. By making sure their software adheres to the test, the creators of these products can be more confident that their software will display Web pages correctly.

Hakon Lie, chief technology officer for Opera, proposed the creation of the Acid2 test as a way to highlight the lack of support for some standard HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) features in Internet Explorer (IE) and other browsers. Lie is an expert in web standards. Opera develper Tim Altman has an update on progress with Opera 9, code named "merlin" and work on it to pass the Acid Test.

Fundamentally, the Acid test is about reducing developer costs. As a programmer, it is costly to develop multiple versions of a web site for a client because each browser has its own way of displaying the HTML code for each page. According to the Web Standards Project, the fractured browser market adds at least 25% to the cost of developing web sites. Some developers just give up and design to the lowest common denominator, but to the loss of competitive advantage for their customers because of less interesting websites and loss of key functions. Other developers load up their websites with multiple versions of code, one for each browser, and became bandwidth hogs. Finally, some designers give up on web standards altogether, and develop exclusively in proprietary environments. In response to these problems, The Web Standards Project (WaSP) was formed in 1998 with the goal of promoting core web standards and encouraging browser makers to do the same, thereby ensuring simple, affordable access for all.

The situation today isn't much better. According to the Web Standards Project,
Though today’s browsers support standards, tens of thousands of professional designers and developers continue to use outdated methods that yoke structure to presentation, in some cases entirely avoiding semantic structures and misusing (X)HTML as a design tool. Highly paid professionals continue to churn out invalid, inaccessible sites filled with structurally meaningless markup, huge image maps, excessively nested tables, and outdated detection scripts that cause the very usability problems they were originally intended to prevent.

Who passed the Acid Test?

Apple Computer's Safari was the first to pass the test last year. It took until March 2006, about a full year's worth of work, for Opera's developers to get to a point where it passed the test. The next question is "so what?" IDG, the trade press wire service, says that while that may earn the company bragging rights in the developer community, it's unlikely to convince more Web users to switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer. They may be right.

If more browsers support the features in the test, designers will be able to create better sites. Developers often feel they can't use some available tools because they aren't supported in IE, the most widely used browser, Opera's Wie told IDG, "There's a reluctance for developers to use features that aren't widely supported. The least advanced browser holds things back," he said.

IDG reports that last year, Chris Wilson, a developer working for Microsoft on IE, wrote in a blog posting that Microsoft wasn't planning to ensure that IE7, the next version of IE that is currently available as a beta, could pass the Acid2 test. He describes the Acid2 test as a broad "wish list" of browser features that goes beyond standard CSS and HTML.

Will users switch browsers if it passes the Acid test? It isn't likely according to Iris Cremers, an analyst with Forrester Research who told IDG it is "a tough sell," adding, "that's not going to do the trick. There's really no novelty there," she said. A recent Forrester study showed that 59 percent of Web users in North America and 69 percent in Europe use IE. Despite the buzz around competitive browsers, last year just 13 percent of Web users in North America switched their browser, the study found.

Opera's support for the Acid Test is a clear message to developers that support for Opera on their web sites is less costly than support for other browsers. That's got to lead to competitive advantage for some of them, and it may make a difference in boosting market share for Opera.

Sidebar - The Acid Test Online

Guide to the Acid Test
http://www.webstandards.org/action/acid2/guide/

Reference page - no test

This is the reference page which shows the outcome of a successful test. This is what you should see.
http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/reference.html

Real Test Page

This is the page where you really test the browser for compliance.
http://www.webstandards.org/files/acid2/test.html#top

Acid2 is a test page for web browsers published by The Web Standards Project (WaSP). It has been written to help browser vendors make sure their products correctly support features that web designers would like to use. These features are part of existing standards but haven’t been interoperably supported by major browsers. Acid2 tries to change this by challenging browsers to render Acid2 correctly before shipping.

Acid2 is a complex web page. It uses features that are not in common use yet, because of lack of support, and it crams many tests into one page. The aim has been to make it simple for developers and users to check if a browser passes the test. If it does, the smiley face on the left will appear. If something is wrong, the face will be distorted and/or shown partly in red.

Ideas for marketing the desktop

Sunday, 12. March 2006, 15:58:36

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A Generous Caffine Boost for Desktop Marketing

Opera has posted a job listing for a Global Marketing Vice President focused on the desktop browser. In a previous blog entry I noted this position had been vacant for some time. Obviously, Opera considers the desktop to be an important part of their business strategy. Keep in mind that version 9 of the Opera browser, code named "merlin," is coming later this year. Along with the Opera mini software for browsing on cell phones, these are the biggest acts under Opera's tent. As a serious Opera blogger I would be remiss if I did not offer my suggestions for action once that person is found and on the job. Everyone else will sooner or later so here are my thoughts. I'll bet these ideas, in one form or another, have been knocked around in Opera's offices a few times. What matters is here is execution.

Success on the Job

The most important success factor in the job posting is this one.

The successful candidate will be based in Oslo. Success within this role will be measured firstly by increase in market share – online customer acquisition and usage of the Opera browser, secondly by revenues generated.

As I see it this new Opera executive should focus on three key goals. Above all else get out of Oslo and get on the road.
  • Raise brand awareness for the desktop browser, as well as for use of the Opera browser on other platforms including mobile devices
  • Increase market share for the desktop browser in the US as measured by web analytics
  • Expand the overall number of users of the Opera desktop browser in the US

Marketing Activities

In terms of the US market Opera needs a user group to be a source of advocacy and expertise with the computer trade press, online forums, and with major PC user groups. An project to develop a relevant US website and blog has not made progress. A web browser is a visual experience. Ideas to engage Opera with branding initiatives such as product placement on US television have been set aside due to the urgency of other marketing projects such as the Times Square event last January. No problem with the Times Squre event, but where was the follow-up? All of these attributes, if developed, could transform a US user group into a contributor to Opera’s brand image.

Opera’s efforts with cell phones, mobile devices, and embedded system markets will be more successful if it invests systematically in raising brand awareness for the desktop product. This can be done in the US market and for global markets. This approach is consistent with CEO Jon S. von Tetzchner’s statement to ZDNet India last month (22 Feb 2006) while opening Opera's new web developerment center in Chandigarh, India.

The desktop market is important to it because of both the revenue and the visibility it offers. In markets where Opera has a strong desktop presence it has been easier to get business from other markets such as mobile phones.

Taking Opera's CEO at his word, here's a quick list of things the new Opera Vice President for Desktop could consider his first day on the job.

Branding Strategy - Raise brand awareness of the Opera browser through a targeted media strategy to get earned media coverage in major newspapers and on network television. A browser is a visual experience and brand awareness will be enhanced by getting it in front of mass audiences. This means Opera must use the mass media. This result can be achieved through product reviews, targeted press releases to technology editors, and using a public relations agency to gain appearances on TV shows and through product placement in entertainment venues.

US User Group - Recruit high-quality members to participate in user groups. A high quality member is technically adept, is a user of the product, and has an interest in it that goes beyond being simply a “fan” of the product. Promote Opera users' groups to the trade press, general news media, major user groups, and in online forums, making it an adjunct to Opera’s efforts to build brand awareness. For example, include an active website, blog, and email list plus visibility for Opera executives and developers with the group and on the publicly-accessible website and blog.

End-User Guide - Develop an easy-to-use online guide to the Opera browser. Arrange for publication of a guide similar to the “Missing Manual” series published by O’Reilly to be handed out to user groups, downloaded as a PDF from Opera’s community pages, and sold through retail channels in hardcopy. Develop collateral materials, including video, to be used in presentations to user groups, at universities, and in web-based “live” presentations to technology editors. Right now Opera's help fiels are scatter about not only on its own site, but also on a wide range of third-party sites. This content is excellent, but it is like a scavenger hunt to find all of it.

Market Research - Use market research and competitive intelligence to shape product and marketing strategy. As a small company, Opera understands the need to constantly focus and refresh its resources on generating revenue. It can enhance revenue if it sees all of the opportunities as well as the threats from the competition. Ultimately, these methods are about managing risk and deciding which bets the company wants to make in terms of product development and target markets to drive revenue generation.

Revenue Based on Branding & Marketing Activites

All this branding and marketing activity has got to produce revenue. The near term opportunity for Opera is to use its own community web pages as a revenue source. If Opera can drive desktop browser usage, it can also drive users to its community web pages. It just needs lots more of them.

Revenue from Blogging - Opera’s community blog pages offer new revenue opportunities if a critical mass of users can be attracted to them. The key success factor associated with revenue from blogging is the number of weekly page views is a much stronger predictor of weekly ad revenue and price than are either the number of inbound links or the number of blogs providing those links. For example, Typepad has 12 million blogging customers who are generating advertising revenue for the firm. Typepad shares some of this revenue with their customers which makes the whole package very attractive. There is unrealized revenue potential from blog-related advertising that will result from getting more people using the Opera browser and its community pages. You can get two benefits – more users of the desktop browser and more advertising revenue. The community web pages must be reliable and they must be promoted along with the browser. Opera will need several million users to get a critical mass. Currently, it has less than half a million regular users. Raising brand awareness of the Opera browser for desktop and mobile device products can drive new users to the community web pages.

Are You Right for the Job?

Opera is honest about the challenges facing the new VP for Desktop Marketing. In the job announcement, Opera says, "Qualified candidates must be naturally creative, think strategically, have strong communication abilities, analytical skills and a track record of developing product “buzz” online with limited resources." Obviously, a proven track record in viral marketing will be a plus. There you have it. If interested apply here.

UPDATE - the actual job posting was taken off Opera's website this week (March 15)


Mozilla makes millions through Google searches

Sunday, 12. March 2006, 13:31:54

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Internet shopping for information, home appliances, cars, clothes, records, and books is fueling the spectacular growth of the Mozilla open source software foundation and its signature product the Firefox browser. According to an Internet Week report, Mozilla gained a reported $72M of revenue in 2005 from click through searches on Google via the Firefox browser. By comparison, Opera had $23M in total revenues in 2005 according to its public financial report.

Mozilla's Revenues

The revenue number for Mozilla is in some dispute, but a spokesman for Mozilla said the estimate isn't off by much. Eventually, as a nonprofit corporation, Mozilla will have to file a revenue statement with the US government tax agency. That statement is a public filing which means the real number will come out sooner or later.

It should be lost on no one that Google strongly supports the Firefox browser through a free toolbar and the search giant pays programmers to work on developer of each new version. Google is using Firefox to drive searches, and click through advertising, to its search portal. Google reported that in 2005 it had revenues of $6.1B. More than half of that amount, $3.4B, came from search related advertising alone.

Opera's Revenues

Undoubtedly, Opera, which also has search revenue deals with Google for desktop and mobile device products, would love to have Mozilla's numbers. According to the public 4Q05 year-end report, Opera's year-end financials tell a story of a company speeding up its transition from licensing desktop browser software to end users to licensing its mobile technologies to Internet devices sold by telecommunuications giants. This month Opera inked a deal for Opera mini with T-Mobile to put the software on three new phones sold in Europe. This is the latest in a string of deals that put Opera's software on mobile devices marketed to millions by cell phone firms. The T-Mobile deal alone boosted Opera's stock price by 8%.

Opera made the desktop browser free in 3Q05, which resulted in a significant drop in those revenues. Previously, a desktop license cost $40. However, Opera made huge gains in revenues from Internet devices with an increase of $3.2M in revenue over 2004. Opera also inked search revenue deals with Google, Amazon, and other search engine portal sites for both the desktop browser and Opera mini, the firm's newest mobile device software.

Here are some additional highlights. Opera's financials are reported in NOK. I've converted the figures to USD.

* Total operating revenues $22.8M, down 18% from 2004 (-$4.9M)
* Total operating expenses $22.6M, up 45% from 2004 (+7.0M)
* Earnings after taxes dropped from $8.7M to $0.5M

Opera hired 69 staff during 2005 and revenue per employee dropped 39% from $142K to $86K. Payroll increased 42% from $3.5M to $4.9M.

These numbers clearly show Opera's significant investments in new product development and marketing. The company operates on a global basis with fewer than 300 paid employess. By comparison, Mozilla reportedly has fewer than 50 paid employees, but still depends on a worldwide network of volunteer developers who participate as part of the open source movement.

What we are talking about here is Internet commerce. A great roll'n roll song titled Money for Nothing by the group Dire Straits has lyrics that go like this . . .

Now look at them yo-yo’s that’s the way you do it
You play the guitar on the mtv
That ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Money for nothin’ and chicks for free
Now that ain’t workin’ that’s the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys ain’t dumb

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour tv’s


And here is the rest of the story about Mozilla's millions . . .

http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3590756

March 10, 2006
Mozilla's Millions?

By Sean Michael Kerner
Internet News

Thanks to Google, Mozilla is raking in millions of dollars of revenue, which is used to pay the employees of the recently formed Mozilla Corporation and fund project and infrastructure development.

Google, which makes its share of philanthropic and open source donations, also directly employs a few Firefox developers, including lead developer Ben Goodger.

Google isn't just paying Mozilla "millions" out of the kindness of its heart. It's more so based on the same basic principle which it pays other partners and affiliates, namely search.

The default start page for Firefox includes a Google search dialogue box. It also defaults to Google search in its engine option on the Search Bar within the browser navigational toolbar. Mozilla gets paid a publicly undisclosed amount for each Google search query made from Firefox by a user.

That Google pays content and search partners, as well as AdSense participants, is not new. What is interesting, however, is the amount that Mozilla earns from its users' Google queries.

"We are very fortunate in that the search feature in Firefox is both appreciated by our users and generates revenue in the tens of millions of dollars," Mozilla head Mitchell Baker wrote in a recent blog post.

One blogger has speculated that the figure is as high as $72 million in fact.

Mozilla Corporation board member Chris Blizzard said that the $72 million figure is not correct, "though not off by an order of magnitude."

The Mozilla Corporation uses the fund to pay its employees which currently number 40 full-time equivalents (FTE) according to Baker. Most of those FTE's reside in either Mountain View, Calif., or in and around Toronto, Canada.







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