Vivaldi: The Web Browsing Symphony More Should Be Tuning In To
Vivaldi insists that it does not track user behaviour, which again keeps it apart from other browsers.
When it comes to Web browsers on computers, most of us tend to take the road most travelled, sticking to Chrome, Edge, and Safari. A few might venture into the Firefox zone, but by and large, it is rare to see most folks go beyond this quartet. This is borne out by browser usage statistics — these four browsers account for more than 90 percent of the browsers used by people on computers around the world as per Global Stats. While this does make life simpler for most users, who are spared the agony of choice, this tendency to go with the "browser flow" also means that they miss out on some impressive Internet browsers that exist beyond this quartet. One of these is Vivaldi.
Does the normal, and then some more
On the surface, Vivaldi seems pretty much like other browsers. You download the browser — it is available for Mac and Windows — and then type in URLs or Web addresses to visit different websites. You can bookmark pages you want to visit more often, open tabs, keep an eye on downloads, and so on. Pretty standard stuff, and there is no dramatic change in browsing speed or anything. All of which might make you wonder what the fuss is about really.
It is when you start looking beyond that slightly familiar surface that the differences start leaping out at you. Unlike most browsers, which mainly tend to stick to helping you browse the Internet, Vivaldi gets into a few other zones. And it does so without requiring you to download add-ons or extensions or anything. Everything is pretty much there in the browser itself.
Vivaldi adds some small-yet-handy touches to the browsing experience as well. It has a speed dial launch screen which lets you save sites that you visit frequently. So when you launch the browser, you see a bunch of icons representing the sites you go most to. Simply select the one you want to head to this time — no typing or selecting of bookmarks needed. Also, while you can open websites on different tabs within the same browser, here you can actually save groups of tabs, which is handy for those folks who tend to have multiple sites open at the same time (Google, Twitter, ABP Live, Google News, Gmail, and Wikipedia in our case). Of course, you can save groups of tabs in other browsers too, but Vivaldi has a neat touch to this — it groups them all under a stack and it can show them in one simple row or even in two rows. Another very handy feature is the option to have two tabs open next to each other, like a splitscreen, which is great for comparing information, following an event on one window while browsing on another, or just for making notes.
A Swiss Army knife of browsing
On the matter of notes, Vivaldi actually has note-taking features built into the browser. You can copy text from a website onto a note, type in something yourself, and even take a screenshot of a site and add notes to it. All of which is an absolute blessing for writers and researchers. The browser's latest version (released recently) also adds a full-fledged email client to Vivaldi, so you can even get and receive mail without having to head to another application like Outlook. It is a full-featured mail client too, so you can configure different accounts on it and handle attachments and everything you would normally do on a proper mail client.
There is also an RSS reader and a calendar within the browser, allowing you to keep tabs (literally) on your schedule and also the latest updates from your favourite websites. Using all these features does not seem to slow down Vivaldi's performance either. Then there is the side panel. We have seen a side panel on other browsers too, but Vivaldi takes it to another level thanks to the browser's inbuilt features. So you can be browsing a site on the main window, and keep track of your mail, calendar and RSS feeds on the side panel. You can turn off the side panel if you wish, and it makes sense on notebooks with smaller (10-12 inch) displays, but on a normal-sized display, that side panel is a blessing, as it saves you from the need of opening different tabs or switching between apps. We even added a Wikipedia and a Merriam-Webster panel to the side panel as it allowed us to simply look for more information on a term without having to open a new window. All of which makes it a great option for researchers and writers.
As Vivaldi has a mobile phone version, you can synchronise bookmarks and other information across your computer and mobile phone (Vivaldi is only available on Android at the time of speaking, though). And if you are missing your Google Chrome extensions, well, all of them work on Vivaldi as well, as the browser is built on the same Chromium engine. It is a bit like a Swiss Army Knife of browsing — it has everything, and a bit more. Incidentally, it even has a button that fades out content and pauses media for a while, letting you take a break from the online world, something we often forget to do.
Giving you a lot of control, and keeping things private
The best part of Vivaldi, however, is the level of control the user gets over the browser. There are the usual themes and wallpapers to play around with and you can choose your search engine, but Vivaldi takes the customisation game to another level by actually letting you change the browser toolbar at the base of the browser. So you can literally control and place the features you would like on the browser — maybe remove shortcuts to mail status, add an option to take screenshots, and so. Depending on your inclinations, you could have the same browser on two different machines and they could be totally different, depending on your usage patterns.
Vivaldi insists that it does not track user behaviour, which again keeps it apart from other browsers. It also comes with a very effective ad blocker, so you can be assured of going about your business online without worrying about ads and prying eyes. How does Vivaldi make money? Well, it says it does so through partner deals with search engines that come installed on the browser. In fact, the only search engine that comes installed on Vivaldi with which the browser does NOT have a deal with, is Google. Vivaldi says it has included it because so many people use it. Incidentally, Vivaldi is totally free and has no ads or marketing anywhere. It gets regular updates, is secure, and has some very reliable folks behind it — it was launched in 2016 and the co-founder of the Opera browser, John von Tetzchner, is a key figure in its development.
A browser we really need to use more often (and so do you)
With all those features, however, comes an interface that takes a little bit of getting used to. If you are going to use all of the features on Vivaldi, you will have to invest some time in figuring out how they work, and how to best use them. And that can be a bit of a task, especially for those who want a browser only for browsing sites and little else. For those who do want to do a little more (or a whole lot more) than just browsing basics, all the time invested in mastering Vivaldi will yield handsome dividends.
We have been using the browser for a little more than a week and while initial hours were riddled with mutterings on the lines of "how the Devil does this work?," the browser has now so grown on us that we found ourselves searching for a side panel with mail, calendar, contacts, Wikipedia, dictionary, RSS feeds and notes on Chrome, and trying to browse two sites simultaneously on the same browser window in Safari. Using Vivaldi is a bit like having a multiple-course meal after having been on a junk food diet — it might seem over-elaborate at times but is immensely more satisfying once you are done. It is definitely worth a download for anyone who spends time online. Just be patient with it. Like many a symphony of the original Vivaldi, browsing with it gets more rich and resonant with time.
You can download Vivaldi for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android from here.
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