So, the newest build of Opera just hit this morning and brought with it the capability of turning it (and your computer) into a little web server, allowing you to share photos, chat, post notes, stream music, share files, and host an HTML site (sorry PHP, etc), all with a dead simple configuration process that is little more than a quick Opera account sign-up (totally free), turning it on and pointing it at the folder of your choice. No FTP, no figuring out hosting packages or capabilities, just turn it on and go. It just works. I had the dumping grounds for my photos (the good, the bad, and the ugly) online in under a minute, and others were able to get at it with zero delay. And this is just to start, the framework is something extensible, so we’re going to see even more capabilities popping up in the future.

This came too late in my day to be able to fully think through all the implications/possibilities, but it immediately feels like a game changer (even if MS/Mozilla end up dominating with their own implementation of it). Sure, I recognize there’s limits to it, but this is still a very slick little piece of work that I’m eager to put to the test- to that end, feel free to hammer the photos, music, and other bits for at least the next 8 hours.