Google to Buy Opera?

I have installed opera a few years ago and found it an efficient browser.
Opera Watch writes Google is planning to buy the Opera browser.


The following is what I found to be the best reasons to buy Opera:
1. Opera is a fast browser with clean code. Fits with google quality requirements/desires.
2. Opera is closed source. Google can add secret sauce for tracking or search or ad related reasons.
3. Opera can be made into a product to compete with MS without giving away the source to competitors.


I think the main reason for going for a close source browser is to include its ranking alogrithms and for new 3G enabled phones. Opera has significant experience in mobile technology and has a much smaller footprint then mozilla and microsoft techonology


I am guessing it will be used to determine a persons browsing habits and how that will effect the rankings of a site. I think google is aiming for the power to be able track how users interact with the internet. That will be amazing power.


My understanding is that currently with users that have google toolbar installed google is able to

1. Work out the numer of visitors to a site and trend
2. How often is a page clicked on?
3. Relatively long time = indicates relevance hit
4. Adding or removing bookmards which have factor on rankings
5. Back buttons and linked clicked etc.