Opera Software is preparing for the all-important battleground in mobile Web browsing versus Microsoft and Mozilla.
The browser maker is planning to celebrate the launch of Opera Link, a technology that enables its users to synchronize their Opera browsing specifications between their desktop computers and mobile devices, with a rock concert in San Francisco on Oct. 25.
Opera Link will allow users to access their bookmarks, personal bar and Speed Dial, a technology that allows users to group and manage multiple browser windows from one screen, from any computing device with Web access, said Tatsuki Tomita, executive vice president of consumer products for Opera, based in Oslo, Norway.
Opera Link is supported in the new Opera 9.5 beta (code-named Kestrel), which adds full text history search and search shortcuts, and the newest beta of the Opera Mini 4 beta 3 mobile Web browser.
Click here to read more about Operas mobile Web services.
Opera Link is especially good news for mobile Web users who wont have to suffer the burden of entering text into their mobile phones to browse Web sites.
“[Opera Link] was created because the mobile Web wasnt delivering a satisfactory experience, so a lot of people had a negative connotation of the mobile Web,” Tomita told eWEEK.
Mobile Web is a key strategy for Opera, which is seeking to differentiate itself from Microsofts Internet Explorer, Mozillas Firefox and other browsers.
To that end, Opera Mini has blossomed. Since its launch in the beginning of 2006, Opera Mini has garnered more than 20 million users worldwide and 1 billion page views a month, Tomita said. As successful as Mini has been, users have demanded synchronicity between their desktop and smart phones.
Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said in a statement that people shouldnt compromise their browsing experience when they access the Web from different devices, and promised more innovation in the future.
Read more here about Opera for Windows Mobile.
“But as cool as we think Opera Link is now, we are already hard at work making it even more valuable to our users in the future,” von Tetzchner said.
Opera will send off its new technology at the Rock Opera at the Rickshaw Stop at 10 p.m., where the Los Angeles-based rock bands The Binges and The 88 will perform.
Opera officials will apparently mix business with pleasure, demonstrating My Opera, Opera, Opera Mini and the Wii Internet Channel at the event.
For those who cant make it to San Francisco, the concert will be streamed live on Operas social network, My Opera.
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