Facebook rumoured to buy Opera and launch browser

It seems like we have more browser wars to look forward to. While Yahoo!'s added their own browser, Axis, to the mix, Facebook has been rumoured to be potentially buying Opera Software, the company behind the Opera web and mobile browsers. According to Pocket-Lint, a trusted source says that Facebook wants to buy the company behind the browser that boasts of 20 million users worldwide. As expected, the browser would be designed to give users more access to Facebook with default browser plugins. It also might work the other way around where Facebook can see users' browsing history in more detail and of course, this information is highly valuable to advertisers. Whether the acquisition will even be approved is yet to be seen.

Will we have yet another Facebook product?

Facebook has made it quite obvious that they want to be ubiquitous, rather, more so than they already are. Building a browser is only the next step for Facebook to become your web, rather than be a site whose services you use. The company recently bought Instagram for what seemed like an acquisition of talent to improve their own mobile interface. However, yesterday Facebook launched their own photo editing and sharing app, called Facebook Camera. Currently only available for iOS, the app allows you to take pictures, add filters and upload them directly to Facebook. The app also presents, in Newsfeed format, all the photos that your friends have uploaded to the social network. And don't forget, Facebook also bought Instagram rival, Lightbox. This sequence of events where Facebook bought a company only to make a competing product is not likely to be applicable to the Facebook-Opera potential acquisition.

Facebook is even testing a feature called Highlighted Posts, wherein users pay the social network to have their status updates amplified. This will be useful for bands who want to promote their gigs or someone who wants to sell their car. Building a Facebook browser means delivering the Facebook experience before the user even heads on over to the site. There is potential for these highlighted posts to show up in the browser window before the user clicks on Facebook. Of course, we're talking about two still speculative elements. Will you use the Facebook browser? Do you think it's a bit much? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.