Vivaldi wades into the crowded browser wars

Not having a choice can be bad, but sometimes having too much to choose from is just as bad. That’s the case with internet browsers.

A browser is one of the most important pieces of software on your computer. It lets you see websites, Youtube videos, do online banking, and update your Facebook profile. If you’re unsure what browser you’re using visit a website appropriately called What’s My Browser (www. whatsmybrowser.org). Your mobile device has an internet browser but many of its functions, such as using Facebook, Twitter, and doing online banking, have been replaced by specialized apps.

The big three browsers are Microsoft’s Edge, which came with Windows 10 and replaced Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox, and Google’s Chrome. In recent years Google has been aggressively promoting its Chrome browser and it’s now the most popular. Last month Firefox upgraded to Firefox Quantum and claims to be the fastest and sleekest browser on the internet. Both Chrome and Firefox are also available for the iPad, iPhone and Android mobile devices.

You can see some of the many browsers available by perusing the list at Top Ten Reviews (http:// tinyurl.com/juvclz8). Firefox was chosen as the best browser, although the outdated and discontinued Internet Explorer came in at number five. Other browsers often have areas of specialization such as Sea Monkey, which includes software to create websites, and the social networking browser called Torch.

Despite this crowded field, another browser has entered the game. It’s called Vivaldi (https:// vivaldi.com) and it’s a project of two of the former developers of the Opera browser.

There is much that makes Vivaldi very appealing. It’s a design-oriented browser with several themed appearances from which to choose during installation and adjust later on. In fact just about everything to do with Vivaldi’s appearance is customizable including where on the screen you want the toolbar. It will also import your settings and bookmarks from the browser you’re currently using.

Yet, even though Vivaldi is simple to use it has numerous features to keep the most versatile poweruser happy. Clicking on the Vivaldi icon in the top left lets you adjust the settings in numerous categories, from remembering passwords at websites for quick login, to customizing the start and home pages and the default search engine. In the View setting you can enable the Bookmarks Bar which, along with the Speed Dial, has pre-set links to tons of useful websites and you can add your own favourite sites.

In the lower right corner there are small icons to click which will let you load pages without images, capture a page as an image file, tile numerous pages so you can have many websites open simultaneously, and a slider to adjust the default size of the font on the page for easier viewing.

A nifty set of options is accessible by clicking on the Page Actions icon which looks like two opposing arrows. In Page Actions you can block content such as advertising, view the page in greyscale or sepia, sharpen images, and convert the whole page to a 3D view. There are also other actions you can experiment with, such as skewing the images on a website. If in doubt, the Vivaldi website has instructions for all of its features (https:// help.vivaldi.com)

If you don’t like Vivaldi you can uninstall it, but if you do like it you can make it your default browser. This is merely a mouse click in Windows 7 or 8 (http://tinyurl. com/ydd4a2zb) but Windows 10 made the process difficult. Click the Start button, Settings or the gear icon, the Apps and Features box, and then the heading for Default apps. Under web browser you can select Vivaldi, and you can set other default apps as well. There are instructions at Windows Central (http://tinyurl. com/ybmyeawd).

The good thing is that you can have several browsers on your computer and use them all at once and they won’t conflict with each other. The down side is that you will have to choose one as your favourite.

Ray Saitz, a Peterborough resident and teacher, writes a regular column on the Internet. He can be reached at rayser3@cogeco.ca