14 DAY TRIAL // Opera may be known for its browsers, but the company is constantly trying different things. Opera has amassed a small army of loyal fans and, while they may be few, they sure love their browser.
The way the browser maker has catered to its community has a lot to do with that so fans should be glad to hear that the My Opera Community site is getting a rather significant update.
The new My Opera Community, still in private beta, is an evolutionary move. It comes with a visual refresh and a new layout, but also with a couple new features.
Notable is the more prominent Facebook integration. My Opera enables users to link to their Facebook as well as their Twitter accounts.
There is also an emphasis on the news, similar in a way to the Facebook News Feed. The news section takes center stage, while the other tools are relegated to the right sidebar.
The new My Opera is only accessible at my-beta.opera.com/community to select users now, but it will eventually be made available to everyone.
My Opera Community started out almost a decade ago, in 2001, as more of a help center than a social network. Still, the fact that users could establish an identity and form a community made it quite popular and Opera has been adding features to make it more community-oriented since then.
The first major update came in 2005 when My Opera Community took the shape its users know today. A lot of features were added, all aimed at making the site more like a social network.
Users had the ability to create photo albums, host blogs and even share files on the site. They also had the possibility to create groups, pretty much all the necessary ingredients of a social network.
The current version of the site was introduced in 2007, mostly a visual revamp but also introducing a couple of improved features. Users now get access to 2 GB worth of storage, up from 350 MB in the first iteration.
