Opera Unite is a plug-in of sorts for the Opera web browser. Opera might not be the most popular browser around, but the folks behind it try to woo would-be users by jamming in all sorts of advanced features that you won't find elsewhere.

Unite follows that tradition by enabling file and media sharing, chat, web hosting, and a few other features, all running inside the browser. Opera says this eliminates the middle man in that the stuff you're sharing doesn't go through a server, but of course that's only partly true.

Opera Unite employes a peer-to-peer (P2P) communications model, which means that while the files are hosted on and served from your computer, they still bounce through other servers in transit before reaching your friend or colleague.

You can pick up Opera Unite for Windows, Mac, or Linux by downloading a special version of the Opera 10 browser at Opera's Labs website.