The big news today is Opera launched Opera Unite.  It is a technology that turns any computer or device running Opera into a Web server.   With Opera Unite anyone can serve and share content and services directly from their own PC with one or more of their friends at the same time. It all happens through the browser, and it will work wherever Opera works.  Good idea but it has serious security issues for networks.  The chances of this new technology propelling Opera to the top of the browser market are not good and initial reviews have been mixed.

Here’s the real story for small business.  There is no story.  Opera has such a small presence in the browser market it is not, in my opinion, worth stressing over.  Whenever there is big news in the browser world there is a ripple of panic through the development world to catch up.  Our clients want their websites optimized for the new browser, or in this case browser environment, and we (developers) scramble to stay up on the latest changes.Given that we are all blogging, linkeIn, twittering, developing, meeting, designing and otherwise occupying our busy business day, it is my advice to put this new browser development at the bottom of the list. 

The latest market share browser statistics continue to show Opera at the bottom of the list.   IE -  75%; Firefox – 19%; Safari – 3%; Chrome  - 2%; Opera - .4%

Libby Lucas
llucas@ccpteam.com
www.ccpteam.com

PC World 

Make Internet Explorer and Firefox more useful with List.it, IE7Pro, VideoDownload Helper, Zigtag, and other add-ons and services.

Preston Gralla, PC World

Use these free browser add-ons to take notes in your browser, see thumbnails of Web pages in Google searches, drag an address in a Web page to an add-on and map it instantly, and quickly download video with one press of a hotkey.

1. BEST BET List.it: This nifty little Firefox 3 utility (registration required) hides away until you need to jot down notes or call up already created notes. Press a hotkey, and a sidebar appears that lets you type in text or look at previous text. If you run this add-on on multiple PCs, you can synchronize notes among them all.
2. Feeds Plus: Internet Explorer has a very good RSS reader built in, but you can make it even better. This download lets you read all of your feeds in one location, so that you don't have to read a single feed at a time. It also tells you when your favorite feeds have new content.
3. FireFTP: The venerable file transfer protocol (FTP) isn't dead--it's still a great way to access vast file repositories, and to send and receive large files when your ISP won't let you send them via e-mail. This superb Firefox add-on lets you use FTP right within the browser. Setting up new accounts is simple, and the add-on gives you all the FTP tools you'd expect, including the ability to create remote directories.
4. Google Preview: This great Firefox add-on lets you see thumbnails of the Web pages that appear in Google search results, to help you decide which sites to visit.
5. IE7Pro: This do-it-all add-on for Internet Explorer rivals some of the best Firefox add-ons, and then some. You can manage your tabs better, block Flash ads, automatically scroll Web pages, automatically refresh pages, instantly fill in forms...and that's just a start. It's a must-have download for anyone who wants to get more out of IE.
6. Minimap Sidebar: You come across a physical address on a Web page and you want to see it on a map--but you don't want to take the time to copy it, open a mapping site, and paste it in. This Firefox add-on simplifies the whole process. Whenever you come across an address in a Web page, drag it to this little app in the sidebar, and the tool will map it for you, right there, without your having to leave the current site.
7. Video DownloadHelper: See an online video that you want to save to your local disk? Press a hotkey, and this simple Firefox add-on will download it for later viewing.

Information Week

The latest data shows that Microsoft's new browser lost market share over the weekend.

By Paul McDougall

InformationWeek
March 23, 2009 11:00 AM

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)'s Internet Explorer 8 appears to be losing market share, even though the browser has been on the market for less than a week.

As of 8:00 am Monday, IE8 -- released Thursday -- held 1.86% of the browser market, down from a high of 2.59% on Sunday, according to market watcher Net Applications. The most likely reason for the decline is that early adopters of IE8 are switching back to the more familiar, and --at this point -- reliable Explorer 7 browser.

Explorer 8 includes a number of new tools, like a feature called Web Slices that lets users grab dynamic content such as stock quotes or auction results from third-party sites, that, while potentially useful, may take some time getting used to.

Additionally, Explorer 8 uses default support for some new Web publishing standards that aren't supported by a number of major Web publishers. As a result, some IE8 users have reported problems viewing some sites. "After downloading IE8 I cannot print any card from American Greetings. The message I get is, 'An error occurred during the operation,'" a user named Bob complained last week on Microsoft's IE8 forum.

Some IE8 adopters reported that even pages built with Microsoft's own Web publishing software, Microsoft Publisher, failed to render properly in the new browser. "I created my company's Web Site using the MS Publisher 2007 template. After upgrading IE7 to IE8 my menu tabs and many important images no longer show," wrote a user named Phil Wheeler.

The news wasn't all bad for Microsoft, as some IE8 users said they were more than happy with the product.

Microsoft needs Explorer 8 to be a hit, as the company's Internet Explorer franchise has been losing ground to competitors. Explorer's overall share of the market has fallen from 75% to 67% in just the past 12 months, according to Net Applications, while competitors such as Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox have gained ground.