Google & Opera?

Here are a couple links to a rumor that's running round the web: Google to buy Opera? Ars Technica: Google interested in Opera?

As you might expect, Google had no comment. Opera, however, gave a firm 'no' to the rumor, saying, 'Rumors come and go. Google is not buying Opera.' But the Internet can't live without a Gbrowser rumor every few months. This one, however, doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

SearcheNgineWatch.com: Rumor Mill: Acquisition Time? Is Google Going To The Opera (Browser)?:

Google is going to acquire Opera. That's right, the wonderful and powerful Opera browser from Norway (Opera Software ASA to be precise) might become Google's latest acquisition.

As a long time Opera user, fan and customer, and as a satisfied Google users, I would love to see this happen. I've switched to using FireFox most of the time since it flat out gets into more sites than Opera. I almost never have to fire up IE now that I use FireFox, but it was a frequent annoyance with Opera. In most cases it was the fault of the web site for locking Opera out unnecessarily. But for a web surfer it really doesn't matter if the fault lies with the web site authors or the browser.

So I've joined the Mozilla army now, and I've laid down the law with my family (who really resisted using Opera because of the need to switch to IE for many of their gaming sites, banking,...) we now use FireFox exclusively.

Except I still prefer Opera. It is just a better browser and a much better UE/UI. They nail MDI much better than FF. Much better keyboard shortcuts. Much, much better handling of images. True page scaling. Much better user style overrides, image load controls, fastforward, periodic page loading...

So if Google wants to scoop them up, open their deep pockets, and put some distribution muscle behind them, I'll be oh so glad to switch back to Opera. Or GBrowser. Or whatever they become.