ReadWriteWeb

Opera just announced the release of Opera 10.10. This latest version of Opera's desktop browser now includes Opera Unite, the company's browser-based web server. With Unite, users can share photos, music, notes, websites, forums and calendars - but unlike standard web apps, these apps are hosted on the user's computer. When Opera first talked about Unite, it claimed that this service would "reinvent the web." This resulted in a lot of hype before the announcement and the inevitable backlash right afterward. When we tested the first alpha version of Opera with the built-in Unite feature, however, we came away quite impressed.

Back in June of this year, Opera revealed their ambitious plan to "reinvent the web" with the release of Opera Unite, a new feature of their desktop web browser that effectively turns your computer into a server. With tools like a chat application, a photo sharing app, a file sharing app, a media player, and more, the idea behind Unite was to forgo the "cloud" and share your files with others directly from your PC instead. Using peer-to-peer technology that operates through the browser interface, Opera Unite seemed to be going against the current trend that is cloud computing and that didn't win them much love from the tech community.

Despite its ho-hum reception, the company is moving forward with its plans to make Unite a full-fledged feature of the Opera browser. Today, the Opera Unite beta is launching and will be made available in Opera 10.10. Given the recent cloud outages, one has to wonder if Unite will be given a second look by the crowd of naysayers who so recently belittled it.

Today, just a few days after the release of version 10 of its desktop browser, Opera has already released a new beta alpha version of the next iteration of its flagship product. This version includes a few bug fixes, but most importantly, it also enables Opera Unite, the hyped and then quickly forgotten browser-based web server that Opera announced in June. Given that Unite will soon be part of the default install of Opera, we thought that now would be a good time to have another look at Unite and see if it lives up to its promise to "reinvent the web."