New contender in browser wars: Vivaldi

Nowadays there are a lot of browsers that users can choose starting with the old standby Internet Explorer and ending with the newer Chrome and Firefox browsers. If none of those browsers is really your cup of tea, you could try a new one. The “novice” is called Vivaldi and it comes from a team that includes the сo-founder and former CEO of Opera John von Tetzchner.

If you used Opera in the past, you might find that Vivaldi feels rather familiar. The overall look of Vivaldi is a mix of a classic browser UI and the more modern interpretations in browsers like Chrome and Microsoft’s upcoming Spartan.

Vivaldi is filled with awesome features. Here are some of the things you might like when you check out this browser:

• UI

Vivaldi looks good. The first thing you’ll probably notice is that tabs and menus change colour based on the dominant pallete of your active page. This chameleon effect looks fresh, but it can be turned off if it doesn’t suit your tastes.

• Speed Dial

Another great thing that everyone loved about Opera was the Speed Dial feature, and that’s also present in Vivaldi.  It allows you to organize websites based on your interests all on one page; e.g. News, Sports, Health, Tech.

• Tab Stack

Open too many websites at once? Couldn’t find what you wanted under all those excessive tabs? Tab stack helps you to group tabs into themed groups allowing you to maximize tabbed resources without needing to scroll left and right.

• Quick Command

Vivaldi features quick commands for easy navigation, allowing users to create custom keyboard shortcuts as well. Whether you’re searching through its various settings, from bookmark panel to download panel, a single keyboard shortcut can do the trick. More geek stuff happens when you go straight to settings then click Navigation to customize the shortcuts.

• Notes

With this function you can easily jot down what’s on your mind while browsing. Notes automatically remember which site you were “looking at” and allow you to add tags for future reference.

Vivaldi has a powerful feature set, but that’s not all. One of the things that makes Vivaldi unique is that it’s built on modern Web technologies. It uses JavaScript and React to create the user interface with the help of Node.js, Browserify and a long list of NPM modules. Vivaldi is the web built with the web.

Right now, the browser is only a technical preview, but there are big plans for Vivaldi in the future. In the coming months, there are plans to add sync, mail support, better performance and extensions. Tatsuki said that Vivaldi will be shaped by the community for the most part, so the feature set will be guided by user demand.

You can download and install Vivaldi on Apple’s Mac, MS Windows and Linux from the web site: https://vivaldi.com/

Can Vivaldi succeed against Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and even Opera? Have you tried the new web browser? Please, share with us your thoughts and experience here below.