“Opera share is massive
(Russia and Ukraine are
mentioned most often)”

.

Right. Opera is ~very~ popular in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.
Two regions which are blind spots to the English-speaking media
as a whole !

Opera has negligible popularity in the U.K. and U.S. …so it’s
ignored.

.

“I’d say there is
considerable amount
of Opera fans”

Don’t confuse hardcore and enthusiastic supporters with ~numerous~
supporters. Opera has the former, but NOT the latter !

As a devoted Opera user myself, I have to admit that I hardly meet
anyone here in the U.S. who runs Opera. It has an avid following in
America, yet a ~tiny~ following. Places where Opera is very popular
aren’t exactly the center of the Computing Universe.

.

The DataRat

.

Well, I’d say there is considerable amount of Opera fans.

But both Firefox and Google advanced via massive and expensive marketing campaigns (Safari advanced on typical Apple lies :). Opera couldn’t or didn’t bother to compete with that.

Fact is in some countries where browsers are not actively advertised Opera share is massive (Russia and Ukraine are mentioned most often). When marketing is excluded, leaving personal choice and word of mouth Opera wins.

“Opera leads in tech
but follows in marketing”

Internet Explorer will always obtain ready press because it
has 65% to 68% browser marketshare. Safari easily gets press
because a substantial portion of tech writers on PC forums/
news/blogs are Mac zealots who basically dislike Windows.
Chrome gets press because anything Google does gets press.
And, Firefox is the darling of the media because there’s a
large open source clique within the tech media community.

It isn’t so much that Opera is bad at marketing, but that Opera
has no built-in fan club within the tech media (like Firefox and
Apple/Safari). Then -with only a little over 2% marketshare-
there’s nothing compelling about Opera’s popularity to lead to
much press coverage.

Facts are: Opera Software Inc. could run naked through Oslo, and
the media wouldn’t pick-up on it !

Whereas, Chrome has a smaller marketshare than Opera (1.7% vs.
2.1%) and ~still~ gets ten times the media coverage.

“Life isn’t fair” …and THAT goes double for Opera !

.

The DataRat

.

Hehe, that’s what bloggers are for. :) I am very fond of customizing Opera and always glad to share good tweaks.