Facebook's Not Recommending Opera Instead of Chrome

Just last week, the web was buzzing with rumors that Facebook was considering purchasing Opera Software, the company behind the Opera browser. Now fuel is being added to the fire as Facebook is (or at least was for a time) recommending Opera alongside Firefox and Internet Explorer and in place of Google's Chrome. 

The story stems from this report on Favbrowser, which Thursday reported that Facebook's 'You're using a browser we don't support...' page showed up when they tried to access the social network using Google's Chrome. Listed as supported browsers are IE, Firefox and Opera. Neither Google Chrome nor Safari were on the list.

 

Curiously enough, this is no longer the case (we couldn't produce the same result when accessing Facebook via Chrome), but a cache of the page in question offers clear evidence of what Favbrowser is referring to. Even more puzzling: Under the question, "What web browsers does Facebook support?" Facebook's user help center lists Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer -- in that order. No Opera at all. 

 

So why was it showing up on the homepage as a supported browser when Facebook's help pages don't list it as supported? If we had to guess, we'd say it's because Facebook recently added support for Opera but have yet to update the help center. However, that doesn't explain why Chrome was all of a sudden registering as an unsupported browser.

We're assuming this is some kind of bug that has now been fixed because we're skeptical that Facebook would make such a move, even if it were gearing up to acquire Opera Software. Google's Chrome browser just over took Internet Explorer as the number one web browser. With 32.38 percent market share, Chrome is top of the pile. Where does Opera sit? Right at the bottom with just 1.78 percent of the market. Opera is still number one for mobile browsing (just about, Android is only a hair behind), but as far as the desktop is concerned, it's dead last.

So, while it makes tons of sense for Facebook to add support for Opera (and though it's not listed as a supported browser, it works just fine for us when we try to access Facebook), it really doesn't make sense to drop support for Google's Chrome, also known as the most used web browser available today. Facebook hasn't explained or commented on any of this, but we'll update you if we hear anything.

Follow @JaneMcEntegart on Twitter.           

TOPICS
  • im the 1.78%!
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    since it doesn't work right with opera to begin with i wonder why
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    doctorpinkim the 1.78%!
    that nobody cares about
    Reply
  • bison88
    Same here. On one hand I think Opera is worthy enough that it should be noticed by a larger audience, on the other hand I don't want that to be because of Facebook. I don't do the social networking stuff and would dread if they merged that into the browser the same way Microsoft is trying to do with Windows 8.
    Reply
  • megamanx00
    Heh, some coder jumped the gun on that one
    Reply
  • kartu
    doctorpinkim the 1.78%!Me too.

    I suspect low numbers of Opera browser is also caused by them not hammering servers when you do back/forward in history.
    Reply
  • Chainzsaw
    Sounds like they just want to drive the stock down before the purchase and save some cash.

    There appears to be a growing rift between facebook and google and maybe this is just a way of facebook "beating their chest".

    Just my "theories" and opinions.

    I would also like to point out that the title of this article seems off.
    Reply
  • brotoles
    strange, the same kind of problem happend to me recently.

    I use Firefox 12.0, and I access Google Groups. They (Google Groups) are changing the user interface, and the new interface is not compatible with older browsers, but it's compatible with Firefox 12.

    But yesterday, when I accessed the site, it showed the old GUI instead and returned me a warning that i did not have a compatible browser, even though I had used the new GUI normaly before.

    Today when I accessed the site, I tried switching back to the new GUI and it is working flawlessly again... weird, isn't it?
    Reply
  • MrMakapuu
    Google should drop the bomb and do a hostile takeover of Facebook
    Reply
  • madooo12
    I use opera and it's great, I hope Facebook doesn't do with it what zynga did with flock buy then discontinue a week later, I hate social idiocy, it's a way to collect your private info.

    maybe facebook wants to make opera have a less marker share to buy it for a lower price

    lastly, I hate google's dominance of the internet browsers, community stuff like Firefox and stuff should prevail, not a browser made by a privacy invading company, even if partially open source
    Reply