To attract a truly formidable user base, though, (as in, beyond college students and technophiles) I think they need a killer app which has nothing to do with "a file."
Unfortunately, I think that standard computer/web users know or care less and less about what "a file" even is. Is it a photo from their Photo Library, or an album, or the photo library itself? Is it a piece of music they have which shows up in their video editing and music listening programs and also in their personal web space? Where is that file even located?
If Opera's file sharing system also can hook in to everyday users' existing media and document databases, it might go somewhere, but watching the moms, dads, and other casual users of the world have to actually find a file on their computer in this era of iTunes and iMovie and Office 2007+ managing and obfuscating where things are, is fairly painful and distressing. I like that there are systems which let people use computers in this abstracted way which is a lot closer to how people naturally think about things, but I don't like that the abstraction is one layer up from the OS itself, so that when one actually has to do things like, say, find where one's MP3 player is storing your copy of Kenny Loggins' The Danger Zone, for many people it's no longer an instant "a ha" moment.
Oops this post isn't entirely about what it was originally about anymore. Sorry for the ramblin.
Unfortunately, I think that standard computer/web users know or care less and less about what "a file" even is. Is it a photo from their Photo Library, or an album, or the photo library itself? Is it a piece of music they have which shows up in their video editing and music listening programs and also in their personal web space? Where is that file even located?
If Opera's file sharing system also can hook in to everyday users' existing media and document databases, it might go somewhere, but watching the moms, dads, and other casual users of the world have to actually find a file on their computer in this era of iTunes and iMovie and Office 2007+ managing and obfuscating where things are, is fairly painful and distressing. I like that there are systems which let people use computers in this abstracted way which is a lot closer to how people naturally think about things, but I don't like that the abstraction is one layer up from the OS itself, so that when one actually has to do things like, say, find where one's MP3 player is storing your copy of Kenny Loggins' The Danger Zone, for many people it's no longer an instant "a ha" moment.
Oops this post isn't entirely about what it was originally about anymore. Sorry for the ramblin.