My Opera facts for kids

My Opera was an online community for people who used the Opera web browser. It was like a social networking site where users could connect. This community offered many cool things, like blogs, photo albums, and a free email service called My Opera Mail. Opera Software ASA owned My Opera. My Opera closed down on March 3, 2014.

The History of My Opera

The My Opera Community started in August 2001. At first, it was a simple website to help people use the Opera browser. Just one month later, on September 11, it got its first update. On December 15, 2003, the website was updated again, giving users more features.

Big Improvements in 2005

In September 2005, My Opera Community got some major upgrades. Users could now create photo albums and use improved blogs. Before, these were called "journals." People could also create their own special groups. Plus, everyone got 300MB of free space to store their files. A cool new feature was "mobile blogging," which let users write blog posts from their mobile phones using MMS.

Later Updates and Closing

On March 8, 2007, Opera released a new version of the site. On April 7, 2011, Opera launched a free email service for all My Opera users. It was called My Opera Mail and used Opera's FastMail.FM email system.

However, on October 31, 2013, the people running My Opera announced that the site would close. They said it took too much work to keep My Opera running. Also, other social media sites were becoming more popular and offered better services. My Opera officially closed on March 3, 2014.

What My Opera Offered

You needed a My Opera account to use its services. Every user got 2 GB of space to store their files.

Popular Services

• Blogs: In September 2005, the personal "Journal" service became a blog service. Users could make their blogs look how they wanted. You could even update your blog using a mobile phone. The site showed new posts, comments, and popular blogs.
• Feature Groups: These were a way to meet and chat with people who liked the same things. Each group had its own forum, blog, and photo section. Members could post and share there.
• Members: This section let users see who was logged in. You could also see a list of members sorted by country.
• My Opera Mail: This was a free email account, much like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. Accounts came with 1 GB of storage, which was separate from the 2 GB of My Opera storage. It worked with common email systems like POP and IMAP. It also supported XMPP for instant messaging.
• News Portal: This was a website where you could customize your news feeds. It also included the Google search engine.
• Photos: This section was for users to share their pictures with other members.

Current Opera Services

Even after My Opera closed, Opera still has several websites that use an Opera account. These include:

• Opera Forums: Here, Opera users can find help with browser problems. The forums used to be part of My Opera. In March 2014, they moved to the official Opera web browser site.
• Dev.Opera: This site is for developers. They can write articles and share tips and tricks about Opera.
• Opera Link: This service helps you keep your bookmarks, notes, and Speed Dial links the same across different Opera browsers and devices.
• Opera Add-ons: This website has many extensions and themes for the Opera browser.

Vivaldi.net

Vivaldi.net is another online community that started on December 18, 2013. It was created by Jon von Tetzchner, who was the founder and former CEO of Opera Software. Jon von Tetzchner wrote a welcome message explaining his plan to create a new community for My Opera's members. Vivaldi.net offers its members features like blogs, email, photo albums, and forums. Vivaldi.net is not connected to Opera Software. It later became the online community for the Vivaldi web browser. You need a Vivaldi.net account to use the browser's sync features.

See also

In Spanish: My Opera para niños