What you need to know
- Opera now lets you browse web addresses that don't have text in them.
- Integration with Yat will allow people to access web addresses made up of only emojis.
- Other web browsers don't yet support emojis in URLs.
Opera has announced a partnership with Yat, the company that allows you to own personalized strings of emojis that can be used in URLs.
The move will mean that people could buy a new string of emoji that would then be their new web address — allowing people to click it and have Opera redirect to a website or service.
The move was announced via a blog post with the folks behind Opera calling it a "major shift in the way the internet works." Whether that's a good thing is another matter.
With Opera as the first browser to enable emoji-only based web addresses, we're bringing a new level of creativity to the internet, letting you navigate the web with strings of emojis as URLs, instead of letters and words.This is a major shift in the way the internet works, and is sign of the changing times. Thirty-some years ago, the world wide web was first launched to the public, but not much has changed in regards to weblinks, and we still use .com in our URLs. Now though, through this integration with Yat, all you Opera fans can ditch .com, or even words in general, and make your way to websites using emojis. It's new, it's easier and certainly a lot more fun.
Want to bag a string of emojis for your own web address? You can do so over at the Yat website. Of course, only Opera users will be able to click your links for now. Whether that will change and browsers like Safari and Chrome will jump on board is anyone's guess right now.
