Interesting piece from the Register.
Shhh… Opera holds the web’s most valuable secret • The Register
I’ve been dimly aware of Opera Mini for a while, but only recently, have I become aware how popular and critical it is outside the US.
The proxy browser idea is a smart one, and it never occurred to me that Opera was creating an enormous cache of data generated by its millions of users. Naive, I suppose.
It’s interesting to study how various parts of the World are getting to the mobile web, all following their computing roots. Here in the US, it took a small computer to jumpstart the move; in many countries abroad, it took an experience optimized for low band connections.
The end result feel inevitable. Imagine that conversation three years ago. I had a very similar one in 2008, eye-opening.
Agreed. it’s very important to bear in mind how important the mobile space is globally, as well as keeping an eye on developments outside of the US, I mean California, I mean building 300 in Redwood Shores…(I think you get the idea..:))
Take Africa for example. Here’s a collection of links including mobile ones – love that SXSW idea…:
http://www.multilingualblog.com/?p=1080
Agreed, mobile *is* the interweb for the vast majority of the world, and it really took the iPhone to make us (i.e. the US mostly) understand this.
Opera Mini isn’t really a development, since it’s been around a while. The interesting piece is their trove of cached data. Opera is an interesting company, grossly undervalued.