Digital Media

Opera has released an early version of a browser-based sharing and collaboration service called Unite, which has been criticized by some security experts as having a level of protection that is too low.

Opera Unite, an application platform that turns the user's PC into a Web server, was unveiled in an alpha version by the Norwegian company on Tuesday. Components of the browser-based service include file sharing, photo sharing, a shared media player, a chat lounge, and the ability to run Web sites hosted on the user's PC.

Inside Opera Unite--screenshots

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While the user hosting the content needs to be running a particular version of Opera 10 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, those viewing the content can do so from within any browser, including Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Opera is trying to encourage developers to create new applications that use Opera Unite. "It all happens through the browser, so no additional software has to be downloaded, and it will work wherever Opera works (Windows, Mac, Linux and later mobile phones and other devices)," Opera product analyst Lawrence Eng wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. "Opera provides the platform and you provide the applications -- what you create is limited only by your imagination."

Eng referred to the initial Opera Unite applications as "just simple demos" and said the platform would allow for "a whole new class of social software on the Web ... [where] people can all connect directly without needing middlemen who control third-party servers." He also said the service will, in time, work on mobile phones and other devices, as well as on desktop computers.

The content is shared via Opera Unite by people sending other people URLs, and the security for protecting access to the content relies entirely on passwords. However, there are two ways to do this, and one method has been criticized by analysts as potentially posing a security risk.

When a person (the host) wants to share content, there are two options: either send a URL that leads to the host's personal landing page on Opera Unite, or send a URL that links to the application within Opera Unite that relates to the content they want to share.

With the first option, the host must send the viewer a password generated by Opera Unite for them to access the application. With the second option, the URL includes the password at the end, so it is in plain view if the URL is inadvertently shared. Also, with the second option, anyone who sees the URL does not need any further details to view the content, as clicking on the link will take them directly there.

"Be a bit cautious"
A spokeswoman for Opera confirmed to ZDNet UK on Tuesday that there is no encryption involved in the Opera Unite.

Asked whether the platform could be used by someone to access data on the host's PC that the host had not chosen to share, the spokeswoman said: "Definitely not -- unless they're a hacker."

"Opera Unite has been tested by a number of people within Opera, so the more people we have using the service, the more we'll know about the service itself," the spokeswoman added. "At this point, [you should] be a bit cautious in the files you're sharing -- only share amongst people you trust."

Greg Day, a McAfee principal security analyst, said Opera Unite was a "smart idea, going back to people self-hosting," and said there was "some value [from a security perspective], insofar as you are in control of your own data." However, he said there are also security risks associated with the approach.

"The [negative] is you have to have enough security integrated into the technology, or have the personal knowledge to put that security in around the technology," Day warned. "The logical evolution of services like Facebook was about simplifying the process, so you rely on a third party who, in theory, has the expertise to host on your behalf and keep it secure."

Andy Buss, a senior analyst at Canalys, said security based on the distribution of passwords was "an avenue to disaster."

"If there is no transport-layer security, it is easy to intercept the information being transported," Buss said. "This will need to be looked at as an option."

Another potential problem is related to intellectual-property violations, where hosts might illegally store copyrighted content on their PC and then distribute this via Opera Unite. Buss predicted that security and copyright issues will be a challenge for the next generation of internet applications, which will move a lot of activity now done on PCs to cloud-based services. "These services are required and useful, but they have to be as secure as possible," Buss said.

Asked about the copyright issue, Opera's spokeswoman said that if a user was found to be distributing copyrighted material, Opera would ask the user to remove the content and, if the person did not comply, would block the account. "This would only happen if the matter was brought to Opera's attention, as Opera does not monitor your data," the spokeswoman added.

Related story: Speedy Opera 10 beta reconfigures as Web suite

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.

The amount of market share commanded by Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser has dropped for the seventh consecutive month.

Internet Explorer now has 67.55 percent of global browser market share, a drop of over seven percentage points in a year, according to figures from Web metrics company Net Applications, released Monday. Mozilla's Firefox browser, meanwhile, has gained market share in the same time frame, climbing over three percentage points to 21.53 percent.

Microsoft's browser has steadily lost ground to its competitors in the past year. Its share dropped sharply in both October and November 2008, when it lost over one percentage point in each month.

Apple's Safari browser now stands at 8.29 percent, up from 7.13 percent in November, when IE dipped. Safari has gained share more quickly than Firefox in that period: Mozilla's browser accounted for 20.78 percent of browser use three months ago, and now has 21.53 percent.

Google's Chrome browser, launched in September 2008, now has 1.12 percent of the market, having overtaken Opera in November. Opera's share of the market now stands at 0.7 percent.

Internet Explorer's drop of seven percentage point since February last year is a continuing trend. Microsoft lost over nine percent of browser market share in the preceding two years.

Most of IE's drop in the past year has been in Internet Explorer 6, which fell from 30.63 percent last February to 19.21 percent this January. Internet Explorer 7 has gained market share overall over the same time period, rising from 44.03 percent to 47.32 percent.

Microsoft launched the first release candidate for Internet Explorer 8 last week. It hopes to regain lost ground by adding features such as private browsing and a cross-site scripting filter.

Tom Espiner of ZDNet UK reported from London.

Google Chrome is a warning shot over the bows of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Opera.

The open-source software project, to be detailed later Tuesday at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., should dispel any lingering thoughts that the browser wars are over. To be sure, it's less cutthroat now than in the 1990s, but one of technology's most powerful companies is now on the battlefield.

So how does Chrome change the competitive landscape?

Google Chrome has many competitors to contend with, according to these August stats.

(Credit: Net Applications)

Initially at least, it's not likely to change the market share rankings. According to Net Applications' browser market share statistics for August, IE has 72 percent share, Firefox 20 percent, Safari 6 percent, and Opera 1 percent.

But even before Google's browser became available for download, its repercussions were traversing the industry. There are plenty of implications from a company as large as Google that builds a browser tuned to advance the company's agenda of Web-based applications.

Here are some possible implications for the four major alternatives to Chrome.

Internet Explorer
IE still claims the dominant share of the browser market, and it still has the hard-to-beat distribution channel of being built into the most widely used operating system.

Firefox has been chipping away at IE's share for years, but the dominance has remained fairly secure, and unless Chrome offers revolutionary new abilities, it's not likely to do more than perhaps increase the chipping rate a bit.

Microsoft has lit a fire under its IE team, and given that Google is such a powerful Microsoft rival, that fire doubtless will burn all the hotter because of Chrome. The forthcoming IE 8, with beta 2 released last week and the final version officially due to ship by the end of January, is a sign of how serious Microsoft is.

Officially, Microsoft welcomes the competition. "The browser landscape is highly competitive, but people will choose Internet Explorer 8 for the way it puts the services they want right at their fingertips, respects their personal choices about how they want to browse and, more than any other browsing technology, puts them in control of their personal data online," Dean Hachamovitch, Internet Explorer general manager, said in a statement.

Vast numbers of people haven't upgraded from IE 6, which is ancient in Internet years. That cuts both ways for Microsoft: it's hard to get people to upgrade to IE 7 much less to IE 8, but those folks aren't moving to the competition either.

Of course, with Google's Web application agenda, the bigger long-term threat is to Microsoft's Office team, not to its IE team.

Firefox
Firefox potentially stands to lose the most from Chrome.

It's the leading alternative to IE and the standard bearer for those who love open-source software and revile Microsoft's technology, its business practices, and its philosophy. If you're hell-bent on taking down Microsoft, you could pick worse allies than Google.

Mozilla has something for the philosophical purists that Google lacks, though: a measure of independence. "Uniquely in this market, we're a public-benefit, nonprofit group, with no other agenda or profit motive at all," Mozilla Corp. Chief Executive John Lilly said in a blog posting Monday.

Survival is a powerful motive even if profit isn't, though, and the Mozilla Foundation, the parent of the Mozilla Corp., relies on Google for tens of millions of dollars each year in exchange for prominent placement of Google in the browser's search. Happily for Mozilla, Google just signed up for three more years of subsidizing Mozilla, so Firefox and other foundation activities should be financially sound at least for the time being.

Firefox has built a massive grassroots fan base, though. And even Google, for all its charisma, money, and power, will have a hard time replicating that.

Finally, though Chrome at first blush is bad news for Firefox, there's a subtler reality at play: IE is the dominant browser, and the greater the number of credible underdogs that exist, the more that dominance can't be taken for granted. Don't be surprised to hear Mozilla and Google present themselves more as allies than foes.

Safari
Apple has expanded its Safari ambitions from Mac OS X to Windows, most notably by letting the browser hitch a ride along with the iTunes update software. However, Safari has yet to become a force to be reckoned with.

But Safari could benefit indirectly from Chrome: both browsers are based on the open-source WebKit rendering engine.

If Google sponsors aggressive Webkit development--and doesn't end up wrestling with Apple for power over the project--both browsers stand to gain. Google's Android browser for mobile phones, it should be noted, also is based on WebKit.

Opera
Opera has a small share of the browser market, so it's the most likely to drop in position if Google Chrome catches on. It already fights for relevance against the bigger players.

But Opera is a scrappy company. Not surprisingly, it prefers to look at its own growth rather than its sliver of share, and CEO Jon Tetzchner points out that its share has grown each time a new browser has emerged as a viable competitor to Internet Explorer.

"Last year, we had more than 50 percent growth in our user base," Tetzchner said. "I think we'll do quite well this year as well. It seems every time there's talk of new browsers, that's been a positive thing for us. It has been good there is focus on browser alternatives."

Click here for full coverage of the Google Chrome launch.