wow factor

see the sites

Header via: Mute  |  ↓ Info

« Protecting the childrenGestalt from GettyImages »

Browser page similarities?

Opera 9 image

Opera 9

Firefox image

Firefox

Now I'm not about to call anyone a Scab, however the page layouts for these two browser sites are amazingly similar. Notice the horizontal colour split, grey gradients, green download buttons, red and black name/version branding and background circles for computer images.

Open these two sites in separate tabs and just flick between them. The similarities go much further than the above images show.

Paint by numbers for browser download pages?

Comparison image

Update:
Eivind Skjellum, designer of the Opera Page:

When I designed this page (yes, it's my work), it was pointed out to me that there were similarities to the Firefox download page.

What surprises me is that an outfit like Opera, who make a very good browser, are satisfied to go with what they recognise as a similar design in what is virtually a three player market.

Source: Eivind Skjellum on October 6, 2006 12:43 PM

Update:
The release of Firefox 2.0 and the associated great redesign of the Mozilla sites now makes this post redundant. Comments are now closed.
04 October 06 in : News and Resources, Browsers Tags: Browser, Design, Firefox, Mozilla, Opera

Related ( maybe ) - IE 7 Beta3 - a better beta - Firefox 2.0 beta2 available - IE7 Final released - The unforgiving Firefox - Opera 9.5 Released - Opera is now free

13 comments »

13 comments

Comment by speel on 06 October 06 @ 13:02 Email
It's called "web 2.0" it all looks the same.
Comment by danicus on 06 October 06 @ 13:04 Email
slow news day?
Comment by Dubious Inquirer on 06 October 06 @ 13:20 Email
I'm not sure your completely right on this one.

While Logo's are in similar colors and the download boxes are of similar style, there are very few other similarities.

The fonts and font colors are completely different. FIrefox's Background Gradient is a prominent blue while Opera's Gradient is a very very light gray.

Also the lay out of the two websites are completely different. Opera is fixed width while firefox isn't.

I see where your coming from that there are similarities they are few and far apart.
Comment by John on 06 October 06 @ 16:54 Email
@speel
It's called "web 2.0" it all looks the same.

Sorry, but Web 2 has nothing to do with this. It's a browser download page.


@danicus
slow news day?

It was until you guys turned up.


@Dubious Inquirer

The two sites share a multitude of design elements. It's not about the shade of blue or the font. For two players in the browser game, this is close.

Comment by Ian Farrell on 07 October 06 @ 04:25
"Sorry, but Web 2 has nothing to do with this. It's a browser download page."

haha, bitter much?
Comment by John on 07 October 06 @ 08:25 Email
@ Ian Farrell
Ian, when you can put more than 3 words together and explain to me what Web 2.0 has to do with the design of a browser download page, I'll respond.
Comment by Tony on 07 October 06 @ 09:40 Email
I am not sure that scab is an appropriate term. Try theif. Scabs are far, far worse than theives.
Comment by John on 07 October 06 @ 09:48 Email
@Tony
The reference to scab is a link to an article titled scab, that is a related though different story....did you read it?
The Title to my post is Browser page similarities? and I won't use words like "thief" either.
Sorry you missed the context of the scab article link.
Comment by Helen on 07 October 06 @ 13:46 Email
I really don't understand .... sure it might not be a big deal to the average Joe InternetUser, but it should be a big deal to a company that wants to differentiate itself in the browser market. If Opera wants to demonstrate that it doesn't deserve the label of an "also-ran" in the browser marketplace, surely maintaining its own style and branding would be very important to them. One of the first pages that a potential new user sees is the download page... jump to your own conclusions here.

Sure there is a palette of current fashionable web colours and its fine to use them, just as it's also fine to follow current conventions and styles in design and layout. If the Opera download page was a little similar to the download page for Skype or Picasa or iTunes or some other popular software it wouldn't really matter so much, but when it is very similar to the download page for a competing product then it seems like a pretty dumb move.
Comment by John Doe on 08 October 06 @ 00:26 Email
It is actually a two player game still, lets not classify opera at THE third player when clearly third player could go to safari, upcoming flock, netscape, etc.

Plus opera 9.02 is buggy. With firefox 2.0 and IE 7.0 coming out, this industry is going to become even more two player.

Both are superior to the current browsers available.
Comment by John on 09 October 06 @ 09:19 Email
@ John Doe

The point you raise has some validity but is also a shame. To have the browser game reduced to a two horse race is nothing to be happy about. Opera have often led with innovation and the browser itself is most likely no more buggy than FF2 or IE7B3.

I can only wish more success to Opera because it will help drive further innovation.

Anyhow, this post isn't about a browser pissing competition, it's about how close competitors can go in the design of their download pages.

Comment by django on 15 October 06 @ 02:47
Opera copied Mozilla, plain and simple, their website before was very red.
Comment by Yert on 24 October 06 @ 09:14 Email
If you think thats bad, you should see Firefox. I tried Opera, but I don't like the layout as much. I just got Firefox 2.0 directly off the ftp site, a day early, and... it is a blatant rip off of Opera.

/cry

I like the old layout more...

Comments are closed for this post.