Opera Unite

On June 16th, we unveiled Opera Unite, and the response was tremendous. So many people around the world were excited to learn what Opera Unite is all about and how the technology is poised to change how we interact with our data and each other online. That last point is worth re-emphasizing. Opera Unite, as many of you figured out, isn't just a tool for sharing data between computers; it is a platform that enables rich, real-time, and direct communication between people.

Since the launch of our experimental Labs release of Opera Unite, I've had the opportunity to see what people are asking for and dreaming about regarding future Opera Unite services. Inside of Opera, of course, we've been dreaming up some killer services as well. Work has already commenced on such services, paving the way for Opera Unite's full (non-alpha/beta) debut.

A lot of the suggestions have been based on the idea that Opera Unite would work well for collaboration, which I agree with. Some people say that Opera Unite is constrained by the fact that the applications only work when the person hosting Opera Unite services has his or her computer turned on and connected to the Internet. For some people, that is an impossible limitation. For others, however, the best creativity flows from designing within boundaries. The challenge is creating applications that are specifically designed for temporary connectivity instead of applications that are forced to work in spite of it.

1. Opera Unite and server-to-server communication

A critical feature of Opera Unite is that people don't have to use an Opera browser to view/consume Opera Unite-hosted content. Therefore, people who author Opera Unite services have a much larger audience than just Opera users (even though Opera Desktop users number in the tens of millions worldwide). That said, there is an opportunity here for application developers who ask the question: what kind of added functionality can be gained when multiple Opera Unite users connect with each other? We are so used to the idea of individuals connecting as clients to single centralized servers, but what about two, three, or more people connecting with each other, where everyone is powered by their own server?

Imagine, for example, the simple file sharing service currently available to Opera Unite users. Let's say I have a folder with hundreds of photos that I want to share with my dad. My dad has a folder of photos on his computer with some, but not all, of the photos I have on my computer. Right now, he might download all of the images from my folder, and then manually check for and delete duplicates, but that would be a waste of time. What we need is an Opera Unite service that compares the contents of the two folders and automatically synchronizes them (bi-directionally) so that my dad gets all the photos from me that he doesn't have yet, and I get all the photos from him that I don't have yet.

That is a simple example, but the concept applies to all kinds of scenarios involving shared content. Wikis, collaborative spreadsheets and presentations, and distributed eLearning tools all benefit from synchronization functionality. Opera Unite is poised to provide this functionality across all kinds of devices, completely for free.

2. The Opera Unite services of tomorrow

Here are two more illustrations of what Opera Unite Services might look like in the near future:

Opera Unite Screening Room

Opera Unite potentially enables social consumption of video in addition to audio. In this age of DVDs, downloadable videos, streaming video sites, and Digital Video Recorders, we have more convenient access to video content than ever before. We no longer have to sit down at a particular time in front of the TV to watch our favorite shows. Instead, we watch them whenever we feel like it. For many people, however, that means that watching videos is a potentially lonely experience. On some online video sites, there is an option to join "viewing rooms" so you can discuss what you're watching with other viewers. The problem with that, however, is that you're chatting with strangers, which is not really much better than watching it alone. Opera Unite offers a better alternative.

With a full-featured Opera Unite video player (and sufficient bandwidth), you can see which of your friends are online and invite them to your screening. When you play your video, it streams over the internet, and all your friends can watch at the same time, comment on the video, play trivia games, etc. Watching video on your computer thereby becomes a social activity with people you actually want to interact with.

In my experience among anime fans, I've met people who watch video on their computers, but have made it a social event by having their far-away friends watch the same video at the same time. Over the telephone, one person would tell the others when to hit "play", and they'd all chat about the video in real-time. The Opera Unite Screening Room would offer the same functionality, but in a more convenient and user-friendly fashion.

Opera Unite Shopping Trip

Browsing sites on a personal computer is another thing that most people do alone. However, shopping is something that many people do as a social activity. Shopping online, therefore, lacks a critical social component that many people enjoy. At best, two people might use a chat application to share links while shopping together online, but that requires a lot of cutting and pasting, unwieldy URLs, and no clear way of knowing what the other person is looking at.

With an Opera Unite shopping application, however, two or more people can view the same browser window simultaneously. The application could also contain a chat window, and each participant can mark pages (for specific goods) as being 'interesting' or 'not interesting,' and pull up other pages with related items or better prices. Each participant would be able to take turns showing the pages they are interested in. Another pane inside the shopping window might show each person's shopping basket, so you can discuss each other's choices before you buy.

Retailers could even create their own store-specific shopping apps allowing friends to browse together, view recommended items, take advantage of special offers and coupons, etc.

Such an application might also be particularly well-suited for group planning of vacations and other trips.

3. Further reading

Once again, here are some links to Opera users discussing what they want to see in Opera Unite:

Opera Unite forum on My Opera

Unite Dreams

There's a lot to digest and think about regarding this new technology; your feedback is much appreciated as we continue to develop it.

As always, developers can find detailed technical documentation on http://dev.opera.com/articles/unite/.