Opera Mini turns one
By Marianne. Thursday, 25. January 2007, 17:59:01
Opera Mini just had it's first birthday and we're celebrating. Opera Mini was introduced to the world one year ago. Since that time, Mini has changed the way people and companies think about the mobile Web. And it's all down to you.
We're saying thanks 10 million times tomorrow to celebrate the 10 million of you who use Opera Mini. This day is more about you than us. We make a product, but that product only matters when someone uses it. It's amazing to be part of it.
So tomorrow we'll have a little celebration here, a little "ask the developers session" (feel free to post your questions as comments to this blog post and we'll answer them here), and maybe a few chances to win some Opera goodies along the way. It's our way of saying we appreciate you.
We've had a tremendous ride along the way with all of you and look forward to all the great things to come.
PS - Be on the lookout for the Opera Ninja tomorrow.
Edit: First batch of answers here















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Ramunas # 25. January 2007, 18:08
And thanks for making such a great peace of software.
remcolanting # 25. January 2007, 18:10
tinhoy # 25. January 2007, 18:26
dantesoft # 25. January 2007, 18:28
Wael Ch # 25. January 2007, 20:30
ManneS # 25. January 2007, 20:34
http://www.opera.com/pressreleases/en/2006/01/24/
Niller # 25. January 2007, 20:40
Eddie_Lopez # 25. January 2007, 20:47
Congrats!
I think when it comes to Mini, this application above the rest requires some form of bridge to backup stuff for the following reasons:
1) Clearly it's not fun creating bookmarks on your phone UI.
2) When updating Mini, you lose it all. You can't back up your bookmarks and "remember me" information. You start over at every upgrade.
3) There's millions (ten!) of Mini users that could potentially be getting involved in the community.
4) Your CTO and CEO wants it
What thought has gone into backing up our Mini settings?(beyond the casual mentions I've seen from the CEO and CTO, which I've read)
My suggestions? Glad you asked! Use the Community! Since the compressed page is coming from Opera anyway...*AND* you have such a great community, you could have the users:
1) Download mini
2) on the page with the EULA agreement include some text asking: "if you'd like to backup/sync your mini data..." along with the standard "login/create account" prompt that would allow the user to create a my.opera.com/ profile (or login for all of us that have one already)
3) That will establish a link up so that any bookmarks created on the handset will also be copied to the users profile.
4) The user can manage the bookmarks (at least), and some mini settings (like: **-fullscreen on startup!) from this page. It's defaulted to private viewing, but able to be viewed public. So Opera profiles created via Mini would have an "About" page and a hidden "Mini" page that could be made viewable.
Oh man, that sounds cool... Opera gets community members, users get to keep data that gets lost everytime we update Mini, we get an easier UI to manage, we can share our mobile bookmarks with the community... sounds cool to me! Give the millions of Mini users more than just that "my Opera" bookmark that many of them probably wouldn't know what to do with- but now they have an account and can easily get right to community involvement.
kiwi47 # 25. January 2007, 21:13
My congratulations to all involved at Opera, and I'll look forward to watching Mini evolve in the future!
sonyx # 25. January 2007, 21:48
And congratulations with the 1 yr anniversary, Opera Mini really brings my mobile to life like no other app.
Tamil # 25. January 2007, 22:08
theoddbod # 25. January 2007, 22:27
O2 would probably like to thank you as well for adding £30+ to my monthly bill since Mini was released! :-(
DotEd # 25. January 2007, 22:40
opera ninja kicks my neck out! (my fav so far: http://my.opera.com/Nplus/blog/opera-browser-trial-12-22-full )
also, i think eddie lopez is on the right track.
Words # 25. January 2007, 22:59
Ramunas # 25. January 2007, 23:31
alai_benc # 25. January 2007, 23:40
ManneS # 25. January 2007, 23:44
ricewood # 25. January 2007, 23:49
The only backdraw I´ve ever experienced with Mini was when I bought myself a new mobile. When I wanted to download a new browser via a direct link, I was told that the link couldn´t be sent to my phone - since a link had already been sent to that number once.
Otherwise I´ve been more than pleased with it.
Happy Birthday, Opera Mini!
Eddie_Lopez # 26. January 2007, 00:21
Even though your rendering removes horizontal scrolling, are you looking at ways to better utilize trackballs in some mobiles? BB Pearl, Sidekick, several others take a step to move beyond the D-Pad in most mobile phones, it would be nice if Opera can keep up with them.
Question 3:
You've gotten a lot of flack for the Yahoo! Deal... can you shed some more light on the "OneSearch" functionality and how it will work with the Opera UI. (which contrary to popular belief is not in the current Mini- that's just the normal Yahoo! search)
Question 4:
What's the word with Verizon/Brew?
Question 5:
What is the makeup of the development team? How many "core" developers to you have and how many other teams contribute.. ie- how large is the project?
Question 6:
The first keys I hit everytime I start Mini is: "**" Can we get that be a part of the Tools->settings menu?
Question 7:
Generally speaking...are vendors coming to you guys? Or are you shopping Mini out to all the vendors?
Question 8:
Invariably the biggest downside to Mini compared to some built-in browsers is the integration with the rest of the features of the phone (look up a webpage from withing my address book for example, or having a space insert a "." in URLs). I understand the fact that since Mini is built to run on just about *anything* that it's difficult if not impossible to address these issues, but with vendors getting on board with pre-installing Mini, can we expect more "OS hooks" with Mini? Or is this as far as we can go?
Statement 1:
I'd leave you Mini guys all alone if you could get Opera Mobile working on BB Pearl. I'll pay for it! and I do love Mini too!
khadwar_neang_666 # 26. January 2007, 00:48
tinhoy # 26. January 2007, 01:32
1) Will there ever be support for a 90-degrees rotated mode?
2) The fraud sitechecker of desktop gives good peace of mind. Can Opera Mini also enjoy this benefit?
3) Is it possible to have Wand support? Preferably with a password check just in case we lose our mobile. To further that thought on security, how about a simple login check when OM starts up? Need to pass that to login with cookies/wand, or else you can login without anything remembered.
4) I remember an earlier version having the possibility to zoom in on different areas of photos, or view photos at different aspect ratios (stretched fullscreen, to-width, etc). Currently only "download photo" is possible. Will the zoom features ever make a comeback?
CaptainSeagull # 26. January 2007, 02:01
rmccabe916 # 26. January 2007, 02:06
chanthet_kh # 26. January 2007, 03:11
VR¡T¥.423 # 26. January 2007, 03:44
ahsaniqbal93 # 26. January 2007, 04:51
Congratulations Opera Software ASA on the one year of your product Opera Mini! Why only yours? It is ours too. So Happy Birthday our Opera Mini!
CoNgRaTs AgAiN
sergo_grind_core # 26. January 2007, 07:30
Investor # 26. January 2007, 07:31
To core developers, server staff... and all those being part of the OM success story of delivering the Web, fast and fine, to 10 million users worldwide... 24 x 7... Well done
Question to devs :
New feature. Introduce *SecuriKey* ... for camera phones...???
A button that automatically triggers taking a photo and uploading it to a pre chosen Web site...
Purpose being crime prevention, the *Web weapon* against attacks... As speed is vital, only that feature of OM, not the rest, will be launched, when *SecuriKey* is pressed...
sirnh1 # 26. January 2007, 07:50
My mobile is more old mobile. The build in browses doesn't really do anything... so I'm happy that I have opera mini that allows me to browse the web in a more 'normal' way. Thank you!
norias # 26. January 2007, 09:40
mav1976 # 26. January 2007, 11:53
Today I've downloaded Opera Mini on my mobile phone. Just a quick download and installation. Thanks for that.
Nexus009 # 26. January 2007, 13:05
Niller # 26. January 2007, 13:22
Lali19871014 # 26. January 2007, 13:36
Question: With opera mini 4 can i(when will)e-mail send? Now the mini 3, make nothing with "mailto"
briareus # 26. January 2007, 14:41
Also, will we be able to directly enter text into fields? It's extremely tedious to have to open a field editor, type in the data, open the menu and accept the data when it seems like we should be able to just type in the field on the page and go.
These are mostly just nagging issues but they're annoying enough that I never bother to use Opera Mini.
It would be nice if OM also inserted periods in URL's when the space bar is pressed.
purelight # 26. January 2007, 15:53
miamaus78 # 26. January 2007, 15:55
Eddie_Lopez # 26. January 2007, 17:13
Can you say anything about possibility Widgets on Mini? ...Or at least Mobile?
Apple announced it, and I just read this from AllTel:
http://www.frogdesign.com/?p=349
I was hoping Opera would be first in this area.
IceArdor # 26. January 2007, 17:49
jackschitt # 26. January 2007, 19:28
What we expect next is the feature to browse with OM in landscape mode too!
FataL # 26. January 2007, 20:52
I would like to see some statistics along with Opera Mini emulator:
- original size of the page (with all images, scripts, etc.)
- original size of the HTML (disabled images, plugins, JS)
- compressed size of the page that Opera Mini gets
That feature will promote Opera Mini to people by showing how much they can save on traffic.msundman # 26. January 2007, 22:24
Will we see a "load only the selected image"-function anytime soon?
This'd be useful on those sites that have a gazillion buttons and arrows and whatnot, all made of images, but you want to see just one or two of them.
Question 2:
Will there be support for displaying alt tags of images not loaded?
The usefulness of this should be obvious.
Question 3:
Will it be possible to reload a selected image in higher resolution(s)?
This'd be really useful with online maps.
NConOM # 27. January 2007, 00:33
Opera Mini:
My MAIN mobile web browser!
I surf easily!
Happy Birthday, too!
Continued success to you.
Thanks for the hard work!
Congratulations!
(I almost take for granted
that OM is there!)
My 3 item mini wish list:
1) Bookmark backup (and folders option)
2) 90 degree rotation option for images
3) Zooming for ALL images (with slight overlapping)
diyvip403 # 27. January 2007, 07:53
生日快乐!
Sebhelyesfarku # 27. January 2007, 13:00
soumitram4u # 27. January 2007, 13:03
soumitram4u # 27. January 2007, 13:03
fluffybunny # 27. January 2007, 13:54
antipasta # 27. January 2007, 16:27
Thanks
fatladysings # 28. January 2007, 06:40