The ‘Cool Factor’ in Firefox compared to Opera
29 CommentsPublished January 13th, 2006 3:34 PM EST By Daniel Goldman
Rowan Mulder has written a nice post on his blog about the ‘Cool Factor’ that exists in Firefox, which lacks in Opera.
I agree with what he has written; Opera definitely doesn’t have the ‘Cool Factor’ and is not considered ‘hip’. Appealing to the younger ‘hip’ market is an important step when trying to promote an internet product. Getting Opera into colleges and universities would also be of great benefits.
Opera has an active and creative marketing department; I hope they take note of this.
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I’ve said it all the time!
The only reson people use Firefox is because of the marketing!
It’s the same thing as with Christianity! Jesus had a good PR man and that’s it!
I feel it’s very hip. like 1%
I don’t agree people use Firefox because of its marketing strategy or because Firefox has a niche market in young people.
Firefox has grown because it’s an excellent product and because of the endless supply of useful extensions.
The Mozilla corporation is continually upgrading the product and introducing value added to the software.
I’m 59 years old and enjoy using Firefox because it serves me well, not because of a cool marketing campaign. Many co-workers are also using Firefox for the same reason.
Opera must sit down and think why in ten years its market share is minimum. I don’t use it mainly because it runs very slow in my system.
I prefer to use Firefox and Flock because of its functionality and speed, not because Mozilla tries to persuade me through an ingenious publicity blitz.
Regards,
Omar.-
I don’t use it mainly because it runs very slow in my system.
You must be kidding. According to many sources, Opera IS the fastest browser, at least on Windows platform. Opera does have its own limits and disadvantages, but your reason for not using it sounds unbelievable to me.
Daniel (commenter) — I think you’re being sarcastic, but I’ve heard people say so seriously. And I don’t get it. Why the rush to discount all the reasons people have to do things — many of which come down to individual usage patterns and flat-out opinion — and pick just one?
It’s just like those people saying that the only reason there aren’t any Macinsoth viruses to speak of is that fewer people are targeting it than Windows. Or that Opera has fewer exploits than IE, etc.
Hype is good for getting people to try your product, but it’s not enough to get them to stay. And stats suggest that, aside from a dip last summer, people who’ve switched to Firefox from IE have stayed there.
As for it being a reason, I totally agree. Once Mozilla tracked down a name they could keep, they did a great job on the branding and a great job of mobilizing grass-roots marketing.
One thing I found interesting in the post was the remark about Firefox having trouble getting businesses to use their browser. This might be one place where Opera could have an advantage. Companies often are more comfortable dealing with other companies than they are dealing with nonprofits or a bunch of techies with a mailing list. (That’s one reason the Mozilla Foundation formed the Mozilla Corporation — to give businesses a group they could deal with.) I can imagine Opera with a company-wide support contract could be attractive to the manager who doesn’t like IE’s security but doesn’t like that new-fangled open source stuff, and doesn’t want to run any software where he doesn’t know who to sue if somethng goes wrong.
I think what makes Firefox cool is the extensions. This gives it a coolness feature that Opera doesn’t have. Some of Firefox’s extensions are already part of Opera, which I love.
It’s the same thing as with Christianity! Jesus had a good PR man and that’s it!
Plus, there’s that whole rising from the grave thing.
Firefox has a deceptively simple interface when first tried. Opera was nearly indecipherable until I heavily modified its interafce, something most users will not do.
Opera seems to be improving its UI, its last release seeming more similar to Firefox or IE. I look forward to this, because that is a significant factor that keeps me installing but not using Opera.
Firefox users seem to be in large part technologically able people, and I would bet that many have tried Opera. I know I’ve tried nearly every version of every browser, but I didn’t find a good alternative to IE until Firebird 0.7.
I was a Firefox fan boy but now I’m all Opera.
The reason is because of stability.
[i]Firefox because it serves me well, not because of a cool marketing campaign. Many co-workers are also using Firefox for the same reason.[/i]
This is hilarious!!
Do you think somebody will say that i use this product because i like the marketing and not because I like the product???? lmao!! hilarious!!
Alastor’s name is Rowan Mulder?
The three biggest problems I’ve had with people using Opera over Firefox are:
1) “It’s confusing”
2) It’s got an add banner
3) Firefox has a cooler logo. (Seriously.. People have said this to me.)
For the first problem, I think it would be a great idea for the Opera installer to ask if you would like the toolbars configured IE style or Opera style. Some people are really put off by the buttons being in a different order than IE.
The second problem is no longer and issue thankfully. Opera not being open source still is however. There isn’t much that can be done about that though.
The third problem is a reaction I get quite often after I shoot down many peoples arguments about why “Firefox is better.” I do have to agree though. The Opera logo stinks big time.
Well, suppose you’ve heard IE is unsafe and want to try something else. You stumble upon this page and decide to choose an alternative. Which one will you NOT pick? I would have ignored Mozilla and Opera, tried Safari and once I’ve found out it’s not for Windows, switch to FF.
“Opera must sit down and think why in ten years its market share is minimum.”
It’s because Opera has had to actually make money to survive. It has not been able to rely on rich sugardaddies to pay the bills.
So it had to stick with “payware” for many years, which was a problem to cheapskates across the world.
For me the situation is this: I don’t use Opera. I do use Firefox.
So, since I know Opera is a great piece of software, which beats Firefox in several aspects, it’s interesting to sit back and think why I’ve never stuck with it from any of the many times I’ve given it a try.
I’m sure there are many reasons, but I think these are the main ones:
1. A slightly quirky feel. This may be because I’m so used to Firefox. But, when I think about it, I’ve had this feeling ever since Opera 5 or so, which was way before Firefox. Opera has improved a lot here though. Maybe a new theme would do it? (You could always keep the current one for nostalgics.) (Oooh, I can feel the flamings coming already.)
2. Extensions. Extensions. Extensions. These wonderful, tiny little things bring endless amounts of joy.
3. Open-source. I don’t care so much for the fact that I can see the code (doesn’t help me one bit). What I like is the open development process. I can see what happens inside. See what improvements are made, day by day. This may be possible for Opera too?
I’m pretty sure reason 3 has definately no relevance for most normal browser users. Point number 2 is probably also of limited relevance. But once you find the extensions you’re hooked, in my experience. Point number 1 may well be important, unless the quirkyness is something I’m alone in feeling.
Oh – and a word on loading speed:
Opera users claim Opera loads faster.
Firefox users claim Firefox loads faster.
This is quite understandable. The programs you use the most tend to start faster after a while.
Here’s what seems to be a fairly objective test of browser startup times and more.
Notice that Firefox beats Opera on Linux, and vice verca on Windows. However, the only differences that are big enough to mention are for Windows cold starts, where apparently Firefox is a real slow-coach.
Two things:
1) Marketing, marketing, marketing, and then some astroturfing and marketing.
2) By default, Firefox looks similar to IE.
Most people have started using Fx because other people raved about how cool and great it is. Then, being bombarded with more “it’s cool, it’s great” marketing, they’ve developed the same attitude themselves; they don’t know why exactly Firefox is “the best”, but if everyone else is saying that, they must be right. Firefox now has an incredibly large zealot/fanboy community, which has gone so far to start trashing Opera, Konqueror and Safari – just because they’re not Firefox.
The thing goes so far that we have epiac1216 saying that Opera is slower (which most certainly it is not), that Firefox has more functionality (which it doesn’t), and that Mozilla is upgrading the product and introducing value (such as memory leaks and copying Opera’s features; plus, Firefox has a slooooow release cycle, which will only get slower and no value will be added until Fx 2.0 at least a year from now). He actually believes those things, which makes it even worse.
The situation is not good, especially with W3C changing their drafts *because of* Firefox’ quirky and faulty behaviour (Gmail, anyone?). Yes, Firefox is *that much* overhyped!
I hope the trend doesn’t continue, or we will have Firefox being another Internet Explorer – we’re starting to see it already, people catering to rendering and JavaScript flaws in Firefox/Gecko, but all hell will break loose if that goes on. Will WebForms 2 have a future? I guess not – Mozilla won’t implement it any time soon (if ever).
Extensions? You mean, that stuff which hooks onto each other, causes instabilities, slowness and memory usage bloat, only to break with almost each browser upgrade? I doubt the majority of Firefox users know what extensions are and what purpose they serve.
All that being said, if Opera wants more market share, this is what they need to do:
1) Install in “dummies” mode, similar to Firefox and IE. Expert users should be able to easily switch to the insanely customizable beast Opera is (and Firefox is not).
2) Implement its own *real* extension API (unlike the ugly hack in Firefox and Thunderbird, which can even stop them from working at all).
3) *TRASH* Firefox on all accounts, in the press, on the net, everywhere. “We had this years before Firefox, we already have that years before Firefox, our product is faster, our product is more secure, our product is more customizable…”. Opera can easily substantiate those claims.
But the question is – does Opera really need that? People who know best, use Opera. Those who are gullible enough, use Firefox.
Opera users are sad losers.
Opera users are sad losers.
Any particular reason to as why you are anonymous? :p
At January 14, 2006 6:28 PM, Anonymous wrote…
You just wrote what I have been trying to say to a lot of people since Firefox started it’s march towards the web. The impressions I get of Firefox’ userbase (at least those techies) is that they are a bunch of fanboys, almost every, single one of them! Most Opera users I know would say “You’re using Firefox instead of Opera, you say? Well, that’s fine by me; it’s all your loss.”, while the Firefox users are more like “WTF?! Opera? You newbie! Everyone knows that Opera sucks” and so forth.
As long as Opera continues beeing the best browser there is for my needs, I am perfectly happy with that, but a bigger user share would not hurt
One of my favourite discussions with a Firefox fanboy, in the pre-1.5 days, went exactly like this:
(I rearrange some tabs)
- “Hey, you can rearrange tabs in Opera…”
- “Can’t you do that in Firefox?”
- “Well, uhm, no, why would I want to do that? I could accidentally switch two tabs, and that would be bad. I think Firefox is right by not allowing tabs to be rearranged, that’s another one of Opera’s flaws.”
WTF??!?! I swear, this was the EXACT conversation we had!
The next day I saw him rave about some weather forecast extension thingie.
- “Hey, look, it says it’s sunny today, and the temperature is currently 22 degrees.”
- “Dude… Stick your head through the window for a couple of seconds.”
Marius: Some of us have exactly the opposite experience. We see Firefox fans who say, “OK, you’re using Opera, that’s fine.” and Opera fans who rant about how Firefox sucks.
I suspect there are quite a few of both types of fans (the sensible fan and the fanboy) in both camps. Whichever camp you lie in, you tend to dismiss the nutcases in your own camp as, well, nutcases, and obviously not representative of most of your camp, but the nutcases on the other side are the most noticeable, because they make the most noise.
This is Opera Watch.
Firefox fanboy’s posting here is pathetic!
Here’s what seems to be a fairly objective test of browser startup times and more.
Notice that Firefox beats Opera on Linux, and vice verca on Windows. However, the only differences that are big enough to mention are for Windows cold starts, where apparently Firefox is a real slow-coach.
Funny, the test I looked at had opera on top for EVERY SINGLE one of the categories in Linux AND Windows.
You might want to take another look at that webpage. It looks to prove pretty conclusively that Opera indeed IS the fastest browser on the planet.
- “Hey, you can rearrange tabs in Opera…”
- “Can’t you do that in Firefox?”
- “Well, uhm, no, why would I want to do that? I could accidentally switch two tabs, and that would be bad. I think Firefox is right by not allowing tabs to be rearranged, that’s another one of Opera’s flaws.”
This was a ******, not a fanboy. You can rearrange tabs in Firefox.
You can in v1.5. You couldn’t do it before without extensions.
Kelson: Well, I guess you’re right about that, but in the forums I’m active, my experince is as I wrote above.
Personally, I don’t care if people use Opera, Firefox, Safari or Mozilla, as long as it’s not Internet Explorer. IE just makes beeing a web designer a living hell sometimes :p
I’ve asked about browsers on a few large forums. Almost everyone replied that they use Firefox. Most people think Opera still costs money. Very few have tried it because of that. Many have heard that Opera is slow and buggy. The few who have tried it complained about inadequate documentation.
I have both Opera and Firefox installed on my laptop. 99.999% of the time, I use Firefox. The reason has nothing to do with coolness. I use it because the 32 extensions I’m using give it a level of utility that Opera can’t match, not lease of all Ad Blocker.
When I view pages in Opera that I’ve previously only viewed using Firefox, I’m amazed at all of the **** going on all over the page.
using
I totally agree. I asked my friend who’s so prejudiced he won’t even try Opera, why he uses Firefox: he said: “because it has cool logo”. If Firefox had kept the same name, Mozilla, no-one would use it.
There are plugins to adblock in Opera which will be default in Opera 9 (it’s called content block).