Opera Habragosti: Johan Borg

So, today our guest is Vice President of Opera Software Johan Borg , who has recently been in charge of the postal business in the company. To whom he is there in the company is responsible for this very direction - we are a little interesting, but it is curious to know that he will answer the questions asked by the readers a little earlier. I’ll say right away that I didn’t apply any censorship and sent questions almost everything that was asked - of course, only on the subject of the interview. Let me remind you that this is the purchase by Opera Software of the Australian FastMail.FM mail service and the consequences of this acquisition both for the company itself and for us, the users. We now turn to the actual answers.

1. Why do we need mail in 2010 as a separate program or part of a browser? All main mail services have a convenient web interface. And set up an email program, a difficult quest for many users ( PokimonFromGamedev )

In fact, there are still things that are easier to implement as a native client, although we, and other browser developers, are trying to make users work with web services as comfortable as possible. And now we are implementing both directions: the built-in mail client and the new online mail web service.

2. First of all it is interesting, whether conditions and tariffs of the postal service itself change? I was a little puzzled by the restrictions on creating an account, okay limiting the location and domain depending on the cost of the account, but limit the length of the login or prohibit POP3 (IMAP-only for free-users), and EVEN SMTP ... About advertising in sent letters (from a free-account ) generally keep silence. Maybe he just got used to freebies, do not judge strictly, “normal” by the standards of free mail, accounting is only $ 5 per year, yes ( Imenem )
')
All FastMail.FM premium services will work as usual, and in addition we will offer free services for Opera users.

3. Secondly, if a tariff change is not foreseen, due to which competition will be built with the same g-mail. I found a complete list of tariffs on this page fastmail.fm , if anyone is interested. ( Imenem )

When we started developing the Opera browser, the most popular question was: “guys, how are you going to compete with such giants as Mosaic?”. But we were confident then and do not lose this confidence now that if you do something well, there will always be a certain number of users for whom our service will be more convenient than similar developments of other companies.

4. Thirdly, if it's not a secret, what will be the main meaning of browser symbiosis (with a built-in mail client) and mail? What products are supposed to be created? ( Imenem )

Many users already have an Opera account, which is used for synchronization (Opera Link), Unite applications, or chatting on My Opera. By adding a mail service to this list, we will be able to offer users the creation of a mail account in one click directly in the desktop version of the browser (after all, it is already connected to the Opera account).

5. To be honest, I learned about the service and the deal from this topic, looked on the net - there are predictions that this purchase will allow you to create a convenient mail service for users of mobile devices. Please comment separately, I would like to hear about plans for Opera Mini and a web client for mail compatible with it. ( Imenem )

Of course, we will integrate the new postal service with our other software products, but it’s too early to disclose all the details;)

6. Fourth, what current Opera services will be integrated with the mail - Unite, Links, Bookmarks, etc.? It would also be interesting to hear about the integration with the advertising service purchased by the company earlier (if it is supposed to create a service for mobile devices) what the business model will be (banners, targeted advertising, etc.). ( Imenem )

Yes, yes, yes and yes. Discussion of a specific business model is beyond the scope of this interview;)

7. Fifthly (from the realm of fantasy), as far as I remember, in the Opera, in addition to the email client, there is an RSS reader and an IRC chat, and fastmail.fm provides the ability to communicate via Jabber. Does this mean that we can also expect XMPP support in Opera? ( Imenem )

We are following with interest the fate of XMPP - recently, this protocol has received quite good support from VKontakte and Facebook. As with e-mail, XMPP can be used to provide interaction between web services and client applications, but at the moment we do not have any specific plans besides maintaining support for XMPP servers for FastMail.FM clients.

8. Do you plan, in connection with the purchase of FastMail.FM, a more or less serious refinement / modernization of the current mail client in order to expand its capabilities or enhance the user experience? If so, in which direction is the work going? ( fo2rist )

We plan to both improve the functionality of the email client built into the browser through useful FastMail.FM solutions, as well as implement successful finds of a browser mailer in an online service.

9. Will it be able to use M2 to access mail servers through proxy? It’s a funky way to make it up. Bonus through traffic compression. Btw, the Turbo for mail would be a sweet bonus itself. ( Chamie )

In the Opera mail client recently appeared "economy mode", allowing to reduce the consumption of traffic, as well as supporting the technology IMAP COMPRESS. Whether it makes sense to use an additional compressing proxy depends on how quickly email services provide support for this technology. It is obvious that FastMail.FM will be among the first;)

10. Possession of both the mail client and the mail server allows you to integrate them closely. At the same time, opera and fastmail are proponents of open standards. Will the merger in the opera show support any absent or uncommon features for working with mail? How do you surprise your users? ( arty )

First of all, we plan to make a convenient and good mail service. But, of course, it is very tempting to try to use the new web standards already supported by the Opera browser. Familiarizing yourself with the lists of changes in our internal browser builds gives you plenty of inspiration;)

11. What percentage of Opera users use Opera Mail? ( Shaddix )

Millions of users.

12. I wonder where the FastMail mail server is physically located? Will not it happen that Russia will be loaded in short time? ( Writer )

Actually FastMail.FM servers are located in the USA. All Opera mail services will use the capabilities of the already existing Opera Mini / Opera Turbo server farms located in several countries in order to optimize the speed and stability of the services.

13. How does Opera plan to lure users to FastMail from other mail services? ( negasus )

900 Terabytes for each user! But seriously, we plan to make a convenient and reliable service, closely integrated with Opera browsers and our other developments. You can use it as an additional one, and then, we hope, you will want to designate it as the main one for your needs.

14. When in the incoming letter in the opera can I see the HTML code? And even better to use all the means of Opera for debugging. Now it is necessary to save it for that, which is not very convenient.
Can I set up all the folders in Opera's IMAP mail? That is, what letters to receive, what not. ( Greli )

We have no plans for implementing debugging features for mailing. But further empowering IMAP is being discussed.

15. Fastmeyl will replace the operameyl? operamail.com will be just an alias to fastmail.fm? ( Phaker )

The new services will use a different domain name, but all existing FastMail.FM users will be able to work with mail as before.

16. Will individual settings, email headers, loaded via IMAP, and other specifics be transmitted via opera link? ( g0dlike )

We are exploring the ability to sync contacts through Opera Link.

17. There is an observation that when a company begins to engage in a non-core business, this means that it does not know how to further develop the core. And this, in turn, almost always means the withering and quick death of this mainstream. Actually, the question is: Opera company no longer sees prospects in its browser? ( Q2W )

Everything is exactly the opposite: at the moment we continue to develop the browser, adding new features to it. So far, we only had a built-in mail client, now an easy to set up and use web service is added to it.

18. In addition to the already voiced questions about the integration of Opera and Fastmail services, I’m wondering if multilingualism will be added (of course, I want Russian) to the web interface, whether there are plans to improve it in general and to rebrand Fastmail as a whole. ( Santiago26 )

The first beta version of the new service will most likely come out with an English interface, but we are planning to add at least a Russified interface to the final. There are no plans for rebranding FastMail.FM.

19. Why did Opera for so long support its own mail service Operamail with a mailbox size of 3 MB, and the restriction on one email of 2 MB didn’t meet the demands of users. ( Pechkin1007 )

That's why we bought a full-fledged webmail service.

Thanks for the questions!
with respect,
Johan Borg.

Well, the first pancake was not so lumpy, I think. And in order to completely finish on an optimistic note, I can add that the author of the best question will receive a special opera prize in each interview. And today, so lucky, according to Johan, was Chamie (question number 9). Honestly, not for English (Johan received absolutely all the questions from me in an already English-language form and chose an unbiased winner). The owner of the best question receives as a gift a T-shirt and a pen from Opera Software (I am waiting for the coordinates for communication in a personal).

Congratulations to the winner and getting ready for the next series of interviews, the topic of which will be announced soon.