Among alternative browsers, Vivaldi is one of the more compelling ones, especially because of how minutely customizable it is. Today the web browser launches on Android and updates to Version 3.0, which adds web tracker blocking, built-in ad blocking, and a clock with timer capability.
Vivaldi's something of an underground hit among web cognoscenti, and was a project of one of the Opera browser's original founders, Jon von Tetzchner. In case you forgot, Opera innovated many browser features—things as basic as tabs and integrated search, not to mention more internal web technologies like CSS.
Vivaldi 3.0 brings the browser into the privacy discussion, something on which Mozilla Firefox has generally taken the lead. Vivaldi now matches Firefox's built-in tracker blocking thanks to a collaboration with the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo search engine; its DuckDuckGo Tracker Radar powers Vivaldi's new privacy feature.
The new Android version of Vivaldi, meanwhile, sports many of the desktop browser's tools, including Panels, Speed Dials, Notes, and Capture, in addition to the new tracker- and ad-blocking tools. Vivaldi for Android also takes advantage of end-to-end encrypted syncing of Bookmarks, Speed Dials, saved passwords, autofill information, History, and Notes.
The mobile browser features a quick tab switcher, and an optional desktop-style tab bar. Like its desktop sibling, Vivaldi for Android is highly customizable. Both also offer a dark mode, and the window borders take on the dominant color of the site you're viewing.
Like nearly all web browsers aside from Firefox and Safari, Vivaldi is based on Google's Chromium code, so you won't likely run into site incompatibilities, since most sites these days target that renderer.
Further Reading
- Hackers Are Abusing 2 New Firefox Vulnerabilities
- Safari Now Blocks All Third-Party Cookies
- Google Abandons Chrome 82 Development
- Google Delays Chrome Browser Updates Amid Coronavirus Disruptions
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