My Opera was the virtual community for Opera web browser users. It belonged to Opera Software ASA. In addition to being a support site for the Opera browser, My Opera worked like a social networking site. It offered services such as blogs, photo albums, the free email service My Opera Mail and more. My Opera was closed down on March 3, 2014. History The My Opera Community was launched in August 2001 as a simple support site for the browser, and the website had its first upgrade a month later on September 11. On December 15, 2003, the website underwent an upgrade that allowed users to access more features. In September 2005, the My Opera Community added major improvements. During this upgrade, users were given access to photo albums, improved blogs (formerly journals), the ability to create custom groups, and 300MB of free storage space. Improvements to blogging included the introduction of "mobile blogging" or blogging from a mobile phone through MMS. On March 8, 2007, Opera released a new version of the site. The new hardware for the 2006 upgrade was put to use for a beta test website on October 26, 2006. This website was intended to remain up even after the final install of the new hardware on the regular website. There are extensive plans for various subdomains on the My Opera site. On April 7, 2011, Opera released a free email service for all existing and new-joining My Opera users called My Opera Mail and powered by Opera's FastMail.FM email platform. On October 31, 2013, the administrators of My Opera announced that the site would be closed down in March 2014. The reasons given included the increased labor required to maintain the My Opera site and the growing popularity of alternative social media sites that provide a better service than the Opera team was able or willing to provide. Services A My Opera account was required to use the services. Every My Opera user got 2 GB of space for file storage. Blogs: in September 2005, personal "Journal" service was changed to a blog service. Blogs were customised according to user's individual requirements. Blogs could also be updated with a mobile phone. A list of new blog posts, new comments and popular blogs was available. Feature groups: it was a way for meeting and socializing with people who shared similar interests. Each group had its own