Opera Unite is a somewhat mind boggling idea for a browser, which aims to eliminate the need for media sharing sites of Flickr or YouTube by turning your computer into both a client and a server, allowing it to interact with and serve content to other computers directly across the web, without the need for third-party servers.
The idea of sending your friend a link to a file on your computer instead of a URL is interesting. That said, Opera’s claim that this new project will “reinvent the web” has a lot of people in a tizzy about how useful the product really is because unfortunately, if you claim your product is the best thing since sliced bread, people will fight tooth and nail to find ways to point out that it’s completely the opposite.
Cutting out the middle man isn’t something a lot of people are interesting in doing, and as Chris Messina points out in his detailed write up on the service, millions of people are more than happy to leave the storage, back up and security of their photographs and videos to the Facebooks, MySpaces, Flickrs and YouTubes of the world instead of letting it sit stagnant on their hard drive on the off chance that the files might be of interest to someone at some stage in the future.
Will you guys be installing Opera Unite and encouraging your friends to turn their computer into a server? Check out the video Opera released about Opera Unite and let us know your thoughts.
