Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Clearly it costs money to make (say) the Java runtime environment. But
> how does making you install the Google toolbar make money for anybody?

I've used the Opera Web browser since its adware days.  I liked it so much that
I actually paid money for it--not to get rid of the ads, but because it was some
damn good software.

Then Opera dropped the ads and became totally free.  I don't for a moment regret
paying for it, but I couldn't help wondering how they made their money.

I just found out a few weeks ago.  They made a deal with The Google making The
Google their default search engine.  For Java, the toolbar probably helps direct
users to The Google, where the selling may begin.

(Incidentally, this may explain why Yahoo! blocks Opera users from its Web
services.  I've been wondering why Yahoo! so callously blows off its Opera-using
customers when those customers complain.  The Opera browser, for its part,
intercepts Yahoo!'s browser-sniffing JavaScripts and modifies them on the fly,
which works until Yahoo! upgrades their sites, and then the demand to change my
browser returns, and the complaints once again fly to Opera and Yahoo! customer
service, and both outfits are eerily tight-lipped about why Yahoo! hates Opera
so viscerally.

Sigh.  And I had thought the browser wars were over.)

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