The community has spoken: My Opera upgrade brings social networking to a new level

Oslo, Norway – November 19, 2008

Today, Opera Software unveiled its newly nipped and tucked social- networking site My Opera. With a focus on performance, design and usability, the revamped My Opera promises to be a smoother and more functional online haven for fun, friends and creative content.

Upon entering the revitalized My Opera, members are greeted by a new personal homepage which offers an ample 1 GB of storage space for private content. From this homepage, users will have access to My Opera news, events and a friends activity feed. The friends activity feed is mutually agreed upon by My Opera members and tracks community participation, such as blog comments or new friend updates.

“My Opera is a community where members are actually heard and not just accumulated. We listened to what they wanted and we have delivered,” said Espen Andre Øverdahl, Community Manager, Opera Software. “It was important to us to create a user-driven environment where people can manage their private data as well as have a voice. My Opera continues to serve as an online creative outlet for sharing opinions, meeting new people and discovering new insight, and we plan to continue putting users first as we develop and grow this enthusiastic community.”

Opera set out to streamline My Opera further for surfing on any device, ensuring a great Web experience on a computer, mobile phone or a gaming device. The overall look and feel of My Opera will coincide with the freshly launched www.opera.com in order to deliver a more unified browsing experience across Opera’s domains. In addition, a new Opera Link drop-down menu provides users with easier access to their synchronized content, as well as the ability to merge duplicate bookmarks.

Here are a few highlights of the new My Opera:

  • Spotlight – Use the spotlight function to highlight a particular blog you enjoyed and use your influence to encourage others to visit this blog.
  • New language versions – My Opera’s user interface will be available in six languages, including English, Japanese, Norwegian, Chinese, Italian and Spanish. Russian and Vietnamese are coming soon!
  • “Friends activity feed” – As mentioned above, the friends feed notifies users when friends update their blogs, join a group chat or enter a My Opera contest.
  • New blog themes – Give your blog a facelift with My Opera’s new blog designs, including the new, official My Opera look or the edgier “In the shadows” theme.
  • Focus on phones – My Opera has been optimized for surfing on a mobile phone. For example, pictures are now smaller for faster loading.
  • Slideshow – Once you have uploaded your pictures, simply click the “View Slideshow” button for a full screen display of your photos.
  • And there’s much more. For more information on all the new My Opera features, visit my.opera.com.