Opera now supports emoji-based web addresses

Opera has become the first web browser to support emoji-based web addresses. According to the developers, “it will take the Internet to a new level of creativity.” The whole idea may seem silly and fail before it even gets off the ground, but it already has some merit.

Opera is collaborating with Yat Labs on this initiative. Yat Labs was launched in February 2021 and is an “emoji-based auto-identification solution.” It will allow Opera users to navigate the web by entering emoji, rather than letters or numbers, into the address bar.

Traditional URLs, especially short URLs that are easy to remember, are becoming more and more valuable, so they are increasingly difficult to obtain. Meanwhile, emoji are more popular than ever. More than 10 billion emojis are sent every day on social networks and messengers, and 95% of Internet users have used them at least once. It’s time for emoji to start playing a more practical role on the Internet.

It’s worth remembering how many people bought up domain names at the dawn of the Internet and rode off into the sunset with a fortune once the demand for web addresses materialized. Like cryptocurrency or NFT once did, there may be hidden potential in emoji addresses, too.