Opera Reaches One Million Downloads in Two Days
Published September 22nd, 2005 8:58 AM EDT By Daniel GoldmanMore than one million people have downloaded the Opera browser in the two days since Opera announced it was dropping the ads and going completely free.
The download rate doubles the previous record reached in April when Opera 8 was released.
According to server logs, a majority of downloads came from Internet Explorer users.
An Opera spokesman told me that Opera had a lot more downloads because that number only counts the ones from Opera’s servers. “We know, for example, that over 200,000 copies have been downloaded through third-party sites in Poland. So the numbers will be larger. But say one million to be safe.”
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Very good News! I have downloaded Opera 8.50, too.
Mostly Internet Explorer users? Sure that you didn’t get fooled by Opera’s UA spoofing?
What happened to http://operawatch.blogspot.com/2005/07/opera-to-stop-spoofing-user-agent-as.html?
Wladimir Palant,
Even though Opera spoofs its UserAgent as Internet Explorer, they still stick in the word “Opera” in the UserAgent. So you can still look out for Opera users.
“Mostly Internet Explorer users? Sure that you didn’t get fooled by Opera’s UA spoofing?”
No, all Opera users identify as Opera at opera.com (thanks to ua.ini).
“What happened to http://operawatch.blogspot.com/2005/07/opera-to-stop-spoofing-user-agent-as.html?”
That is being tested. It is expected that Merlin (=O9) will identify as Opera by default.
Just downloaded my opera. Opera is getting better that’s for sure - let’s see whether IE7 will top that
SO WHAT IS YOUR SOURCE FOR THIS STORY EH? AN OPERA PRESS RELEASE!
SO LINK TO THE PRESS RELEASE AND STOP PRETENDING THAT IT’S AN OPERAWATCH EXCLUSIVE.
He’s not reporting it as an exclusive. Spend the time to read please.
No, he isn’t. But that tendency to always link to other (old) posts on your own blog is extremely annoying, at least when the link text makes you think it’s something new - something you haven’t already read…
$.02
To anonymous above,
Yesterday I emailed one of my contacts who works in the PR department for Opera. I asked him if he can provide me with some download statistics of the past 24 hours.
This morning I got a reply from him and posted his response. As you can see from the post above, I quoted an Opera spokesman. It so happens to be that Opera also put this information in an announcement. It may very well be that the announcement was initiated after my request (just a thought).
In any case, if you have constructive criticism, you’re more than welcome to email me or post them to the comments, but there is no need to post the same thing to multiple posts. I read every comment that is posted here, so there is no need to post multiple times.
David Naylor, it is common practice among news sites and blogs to link to older posts. I’ll do my best and try not to over do it.
Perhaps I should have an entire post just for soliciting constructive criticism. I am not perfect, and I’m always looking for improvements.
I downloaded Opera from torrent, I know many of users who make the same…
After download I put distr to a server in my local network, and it very popular now…
I know I can’t be the only ex-Firefox user who downloaded it. I was quite impressed and won’t be going back to Firefox. Thanks Opera.
Well, this is interesting: http://my.opera.com/community/ greets me with
“We see that you are using Internet Explorer. Why not switch to the Opera browser - it’s much better, safer and cooler :bigsmile:”
And I’m using Opera 8.50.
I’m behind a MS ISA firewall, though, but that still doesn’t explain it.
“David Naylor, it is common practice among news sites and blogs to link to older posts.”
Yeah, I know.
“I’ll do my best and try not to over do it. :-)”
Great - thanks!
Thanks also for the best news source for all things Opera.
I’m useing Opera from 4.x version and I must say that that it is great software.
Opera doesn’t support all things like Mozilla but it has function which became standard in naext 2 years. aleways something new.
It’s great that it is now free
Wojtas.
History: Opera v3.6 has been my primary gui browser ever since I registered it. Kept meaning to upgrade, never did till–joy!–v8.5. Only other Windows gui browser I’ve used is Firefox, which I don’t hate but have enough issues with to prefer the antique op3.6. Imagine my dismay then at finding that the Opera 8.5 interface and behavior have more in common with Firefox than Opera 3.6.
Keyboard navigation seems to have gone south–I have to keep switching between kbd and mouse, same as with Firefox. Also like ff, op8.5 persists in generating new instances instead of staying in one window. And when I try to get into my gmail acct v8.5 simply stalls (v3.6 doesn’t even try, Firefox handles that as if built for the task). My guess is that Opera and Firefox both have interfaces corrupted by dubious efforts to dumb down to something that will feel familiar to MSIE refugees instead of offering something better.
Can anyone save me some time by pointing me to a place where I can efficiently find digital aspirin for these headaches and others that may emerge? I’d really, really like to continue being an Opera loyalist but all things being equal, because of the gmail issue, for me for now Firefox has the slight edge.