Web3, crypto, NFTs, and other buzzwords are insanely popular right now, which means companies want to ride the hype train and get as much profit as they can by implementing questionable capabilities in their products. Opera, for example, recently introduced Opera Crypto Browser Project (because why not), and now the company has announced a partnership with Yat (a service that sells emoji-based domain names) to let people use emojis as website addresses. Because all cool kids use emojis, right?
According to a blog post on the official website, Opera is "the first browser to enable emoji-only based web addresses." All modern browsers support emojis in website addresses, but they require a traditional domain name, such as "y.at." For example, y.at/👍💩. In the latest Opera release, you can drop "y.at/" and use only 👍💩. Many popular singers have already bought emoji-based domain names, such as G-Eazy (y.at/🦇🌹), Disclosure (y.at/😎🎵😎), and Steve Aoki (y.at/🎂🎵).
But there is more! Opera wants to celebrate "a major shift in the way the Internet works" and "a sign of the changing times" by launching a scavenger hunt. Users can compete for "seven commissioned Fvck Crystals NFTs." Opera claims those NFTs are valued at 2.89 ETH and up, so get ready to search across various websites for strings of emoji to solve the riddle and get that rare NFTs (I cannot believe I write about this nonsense).
While other browser developers try to stay away from controversial trends, such as crypto and NFT, Opera goes full-steam ahead with "how do you do fellow kids" moves. It is genuinely sad to see once a good browser for power users going haywire in desperate attempts to attract more users.
Support us
Winaero greatly relies on your support. You can help the site keep bringing you interesting and useful content and software by using these options: