Xmarks: Where's Opera support?

I understand, and appreciate the links. I actually came across those earlier, searching to make sure that I didn't miss anything before asking.

I was just hoping there was an update on the status of Chrome (or, in the case of Opera, a reconsideration), given the Xmarks announcement. So... is Chrome still in the cards? Thanks. :) ( Delete or Edit)

As would I. ( Delete or Edit)

Opera is one of the best most innovative browsers, Opera invented history, tabbing, and even pop up blockers, I think that they deserve Xmarks!!!! ( Delete or Edit)

Props to Opera for inventing all that but unfortunately Xmarks is a business. If they were doing things based on how GOOD a browser was rather than how POPULAR then they wouldn't have picked IE as their second browser to support now, would they? Another factor is how easy it is to write plugins - which is why Firefox was their first browser, but I can't really comment on that as I don't know much about Opera's plugin support. ( Delete or Edit)

Well... I think the problem is that tweaking XMarks to work with Opera isn't even on the "to do someday" list. If it were, people would probably undertand waiting in queue for it. But I wonder - since XMarks is Web-based, couldn't Opera write its own interface? I'd use Opera much more often for some specific things if I could coordinate bookmarks between browsers using 'XMarks. ( Delete or Edit)

Konqueror is hardly comparable to Opera seeing as how the former has a market share of 0.05% while the latter boasts a market share of 2.04%. Chrome itself currently has a market share of 2.84% so if Chrome, why not Opera? ( Delete or Edit)

The Konqueror comment was not exactly serious but you could say that in terms of market penetration Konqueror is to Opera what Opera is to Firefox/IE (depending on which statistics you read).
Your comparison to Chrome misses one important thing:
Chrome launched a year ago and has 2.84% of the market.
Opera launched to public 13 years ago and yet has 0.8% less.

I'm not knocking Opera. It's been a while since I've used it but I remember it being a decent browser (I particularly liked the pane view - I have a firefox plugin that does similar but isn't quite as good - and they had zoom way before anyone else) I'm just saying that these things go on popularity and market forces. Chrome has Google's name behind it and an average growth rate of about 2.84% a year so far. Opera doesn't have Google's name behind it and has an average growth rate of roughly 0.15% per year so far.

I personally don't share the pessimism of some other posters who think that Opera isn't even on Xmarks' list. I think it's there. It's just below Safari for Windows and Chrome and any updates needed when version changes are made in Firefox, IE, Safari and (possibly) Chrome. ( Delete or Edit)

You raise some valid points. Nevertheless, the fact that Opera has been around for such a long time indicates staying power. In addition to that, as more and more people gain access to the internet, the userbase for each browser will increase, thus increasing the potential userbase for Xmarks. Even if the market share for each browser remains the same, the market itself will grow, meaning that more people will be using Opera. These people need to be catered to, preferably sooner than later. ( Delete or Edit)

Re: Timothy's statement - I am sick of this so-called "profit" rationale that is supposed to work magically to explain everything, as if actually being concerned about and addressing an issue because of its meaning and importance is not even worthy of consideration. Would it be right for every business in the world to only care about short-term profit at the expense of why something is done? If the healthcare industry did that we'd have people dying... oh, wait! We do have people dying because they don't fit into corporate "profit" models!
Just because something is or isn't for profit doesn't mean it is better or worse, or should be done or should not be done. Things should be done because people need and want them. This forum is testament to a need/want to have Opera support. To hell with profit if it means disregarding people's needs. I would also guess that one Opera user is probably more valuable than 100 or even 1000 IE using drones whose level of knowledge of computing barely extends beyond drooling. Should every business cater to this simply because it represents "profit"? ( Delete or Edit)

Althea, I hope more businesses jump on this idea soon. Need should be the only determinant, and these developers should be required to work for the good of others, rather than nastily considering themselves anywhere in the equation.

It certainly worked out flawlessly in Atlas Shrugged. ( Delete or Edit)

Um... I can't find anyplace in Althaea's comment that says develoers should be required to work for the good of others. And bringing "Atlas Shrugged" into this like some sort of Biblical authority is just... bent, is the nicest word I can come up with. What Althaea said was that profit motive isn't the ONLY reason to do something, and commercial companies should respond to the needs of the community, not just to the bottom line. That makes sense to me. Citing "Atlas Shrugged" to disprove it makes no sense at all, and misquoting what Althaea said just seems... geez, did you READ the comment? I'll even add that doing things for the good of the community gains some of the best "buzz" a company can get. If you think the community's approval or disapproval is irrelevant to profits, ask Wal-Mart what happened when their anti-community policies started to drive off the people who bought big-ticket items. Serving one's customer community brings its own rewards, including not losing your best customers. ( Delete or Edit)

Hey Craig,

Juan's comment was a sarcastic response to Althaea's silly rant. You look like a tool.

:)

(For the record, I do wish Xmarks had Opera support, but there's no urgent reason or market share for it. I'd probably even pay a small one-time fee to enable Opera support if that would provide financial encouragement for them to build it.) ( Delete or Edit)

@Timothy - one of the biggest points you seem to be missing in your browser-market-share argument is that whilst Opera is marginally smaller than Chrome on the desktop, it's market share on the mobile is on par with Firefox on the desktop, and there is so much of a movement towards the mobile at the moment.

And you can't validly say that Chrome has had "an average growth rate of about 2.84% a year so far" when that's a startup. Practically all Google programs get a significant market share when they start up, but they don't all go somewhere with it. And secondly, most programs/services which have a good startup will acheive something similar in their first year... it doesn't really say anything significant. Chrome could easily soon plateau to 0.1% per year - who knows where it will go... ( Delete or Edit)

"MKnight", please see the comment by "JoSch" below. That is the very crux of my whining, carping, and complaining here..... What I yearn for is a clean, seemless [to the end-user] bookmarks synching facility that will operate in the background. Opera has it's own syching service, but that service ONLY sychs what you have in your Opera install at that given moment. It pays no attention to any changes made in Firefox or IE [for those pitiful souls who still use it]. "We have the technology" [see .json backup of bookmarks in both FF and Opera -- I really don't follow IE], so let's make a uniform, portable solution where your bookmarks can "follow you anywhere" -- even to web-enabled phones and other devices. ( Delete or Edit)

Just out of interest. I get round this on my iPhone by syncing my Firefox bookmarks with IE (which I otherwise pretty much don't use) then launching IE to sync just before I sync my mobile (an iPhone) which syncs with IE. I would say it's a safe bet that most mobiles would sync their bookmarks with IE when they sync with the computer (of course I might be wrong in this).

If this is the case you wouldn't have up-to-the-minute syncing but it'd be pretty regular. ( Delete or Edit)

Precisely. Opera is my primary web browser but I also use Firefox and Chrome on a regular basis. ( Delete or Edit)

Great comment, that. Standards compliance helps everyone - I hope xmarks will change its mind about giving Opera the support they need. ( Delete or Edit)