Download Vivaldi Browser. At present. And in the painless few seconds of downloading and setting up Vivaldi, let us convince you Why it will improve your browsing experience.

Running a secondary browser is one of the easiest and most effective decisions you can make on your computer. Why? Because you don’t need to switch browsers, downloading a second browser doesn’t change your existing setup in any way. Moreover, almost all browsers are free, including Vivaldi. And importing your bookmarks happens almost instantly, so the Vivaldi test drive literally takes seconds out of your day – if you don’t like it, that’s okay. But you might just find that it adds a new dimension to your browsing that you didn’t even know you were missing. Heck, you might even find yourself ditching Chrome altogether. So let’s try!

As of press time, Vivaldi has released Vivaldi 5.2. The only “annoyance” is that Vivaldi, like many other browsers, encourages you to register and log in with a custom account to keep your bookmarks, reading list, etc. on multiple PCs. Vivaldi also offers an Android version of its browser, allowing you to share tabs on desktop and mobile browsing. (Note that you are absolutely not required to enter an account to use Vivaldi, at all.)

Privacy and ad blocking

Privacy isn’t what you’re probably thinking about when you download Vivaldi, but you’ll probably be surprised at how well it works right away. You know that Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge consider ads as a source of revenue because everything is allowed by default without ad blocking plugin. With Vivaldi, online ads and video are blocked default – no plugins or add-ons required. The result is a very smooth and seamless experience that seems to intelligently block ads you don’t want to see, while leaving the rest of the content untouched. Vivaldi has tamed the most crowded and hyped sites I visit like ESPN.com or SFGate.com without fault or flaw.

Vivaldi is built on the open-source Chromium rendering engine that Google Chrome is built on, which means you can use Google plugins from the Chrome Web Store. Vivaldi does not, however, collect user data.

Interestingly, Vivaldi also includes a “Player View”, a legacy control that appears on other browsers – the little “text” icon that appears to the right of the URL bar. “Reader View” typically reduces an article on the web to a plain background, minimal art and navigation elements, and absolutely no ads. With Vivaldi, there’s no reason to use Reader View, because the default view is just more efficient. In some cases, Reader View added visual cruf by spelling out some normally hidden elements in the page.

With Vivaldi, you’ll notice a difference in your browsing experience right out of the box.

Vivaldi’s Selling Point: The Side Panel

Vivaldi smartly realizes that most larger monitors pack in a ton of extra white space that goes unused. Vivaldi cuts into this space to add a narrow column of icons that link to a number of utility functions, in-mail RSS feeds, and a well-organized calendar function. A small toggle in the lower right corner completely hides the panel; if not, you can click on one of the icons – bookmarks, for example – and the panel will slide out to reveal the full feature. Figuring out what all the icons represent and where they live is probably the most hostile part of Vivaldi, as it’s a bit like rummaging through the dashboard of an unfamiliar car.

Not all panel options are particularly new. There’s a “reading list” for articles you want to save and dive into later, as well as standard downloads and bookmarks, called bookmarks. Unfortunately, I’ve exported my bookmarks enough times that they’re a bit messy, although it’s easy enough to drag and drop them into the Vivaldi Bookmarks folder or the bookmarks bar at the top.

Some functions may not be very useful, such as a built-in Google Translate widget. (Vivaldi, like most other browsers, will automatically translate a page into a foreign language.) A dedicated Wikipedia panel didn’t strike me as particularly useful, although you might feel differently.

Personally, out of all the options, my favorite is the built-in Feeds panel, which lets you import RSS feeds and quickly analyze what various websites have posted. Sure, it’s a legacy feature for journalists like me who need to keep tabs on a variety of websites, but RSS usually requires a standalone service or app. The only thing I don’t like is that while you can drag and drop bookmarks anywhere, you can’t rearrange RSS feeds for any reason.

If all this seems too complicated, you can turn it off. Part of the Vivaldi setup process is deciding “how many Vivaldi” you want to start with.

Tabs, tabs, tabs

Speaking of tabs, tab management is Vivaldi’s bread and butter. There are really too many options, even for advanced users! Not only does a Vivaldi user have the option of placing their tabs along the left or right side as well as top and bottom, but there are also different ways to arrange them: a traditional layout, but also in tab stacks, “accordion tabs” that sit on top of each other then sideways, or just a double row with one on top of the other.

It’s almost ridiculous: you can use your wheel to scroll through tabs, even horizontally; stack tabs by host, close all tabs to the right or left of the current tab, clone a tab, etc. You can even Ctrl-click a few tabs, right-click on them, and tell Vivaldi to open them in tiled format – that tab will then align the other tabs as tiles, but keep the formatting of your other tabs. As we said: ridiculous!

Built-in email and calendar

Another unique feature offered by Vivaldi is an optional integrated mail reader and calendar, which is also integrated into the side panel. Vivaldi does not allow you to connect to Microsoft 365 or Exchange; it only supports POP3 and IMAP, which means it’s a better choice for personal emails than business contacts. It’s okay with me. Either way, Vivaldi’s RSS feed reader filters through the email client. So I simply kept my “real” email on the Windows 11 Mail app and used Vivaldi mail as a dedicated feed reader.

I feel a little guilty about this decision, however, because I like the Vivaldi calendar. Arranging a calendar in a vertical column, as the Vivaldi app does, really lends itself to a quick, scannable overview of your day – less, however, when viewing a week or month. There you can view your monthly calendar in a dedicated tab.

Speed ​​Dial

Unlike Google or Microsoft, Vivaldi doesn’t encourage you to view its licensed content on its new tab pages, like Chrome or Edge. Instead, opening a new tab opens Speed ​​Dial, a set of large icon shortcuts to popular sites. Of course, you can add your own.

You might consider this a bit simplistic, but finding a bookmark can take some time. Being able to set up a new tab page with handy bookmarks is a handy feature, although something similar can be found on other browsers.

Bottom Navigation Bar Commands

Vivaldi also includes a small set of shortcut icons at the bottom of the screen (if you’ve set your tabs to appear at the top.) I find these extremely handy. Not only are they sized appropriately for my 4K monitor, but they’re just plain useful. There’s a slider to zoom in and out, a quick button to take a snapshot of the page, and controls to turn the current page into a thumbnail as well. I also like the little “trash” icon in the upper right corner: if you accidentally closed a tab, you can click the trash can to bring it back.

Like pretty much every other feature on this list, there’s no obligation to use it. And there are even more, hidden in the Settings menu, that I don’t use: mouse gestures, keyboard shortcuts, etc. There are even “command strings” or macros in the browser that you can use to perform multiple tasks at once. These are for the real experienced users.

If you are determined to personalize your browser experience, Vivaldi might be the browser for you. Take a few seconds and find out!