Opera Free for All | 21/09/05 - 16.08 |
Today Opera made a big decision. They’re going ad-free, for free. Previously a subscription was required to remove the otherwise unremovable ad-banner from the interface. This has all gone. It is now 100% freeware for the desktop.
The obvious question is how this is going to work out cash-wise for Opera, given that they are mainly only a desktop browser company. Where is their money going to come from? Apparently if going ad-free can seriously up their percentage share on the browser market then deals with companies (like Google & Amazon in the search box) will still provide profits.
I started to use Opera when it became free for a day on it’s 10th Birthday. I think they were a little startled by the number of people that went in for the offer, and this helped to cause to permanent waiving of the fee.
On the one free day Asa Doltzer from the Firefox team said on his blog:
“Opera Software should do what the mainstream browsers, Firefox and IE, have done, and give away an ad-free version of the application — for free, 365 days a year, not just one.”
And now his request has been fulfilled.