If there's any doubt about whether incentives matter...

The CEO of Opera Software promised that if one million copies of Opera 8 were downloaded within four days, he'd swim from Oslo, Norway to the U.S. One million, fifty thousands downloads later, he started on his journey.

I want to thank each and every one of the one million plus people who have downloaded Opera 8 over the last days. I am proud to say that this is the most successful browser launch in the ten-year history of Opera. I have received numerous requests over the weekend on whether or not I am going to swim to the USA should we reach one million downloads. Although I blatantly admit that my promise was based more on joy and enthusiasm than my swimming abilities and physical health, I will do my very best to keep it.

Read more about the Opera software company's 1 Million Download Challenge at their home page.