As part of the ongoing story, and for all of its fresh, revised, visual polish, it simply does one thing with brutal effectiveness: it blocks ads. Vivaldi 8.0, the next iteration of the Vivaldi web browser, is about a week or so old.
According to the latest update, i still find myself wandering between Chrome, Edge, Vivaldi, Opera, Firefox, and even Brave, just to see what advantages each browser offers. When it comes to my daily use, one of my preferred browsers is Vivaldi. I’ve used Vivaldi for several years now, and I still consider it to be a superior browser.
As part of the ongoing story, in reality, it’s just a cohesive way to let themes and backgrounds flow across the entirety of the browser. Pretty, and useful, but not wholly groundbreaking. (And fully reversible, according to Vivaldi.). Vivaldi 8 represents what the publisher considers to be a major change to the interface: “a fresh unified design that makes every element of the browser speak the same visual language and respond as one cohesive whole.” Put another way, Vivaldi made some adjustments to unify the tabs, toolbars, panels, and other content into a cohesive surface.
Industry observers note that but what I love about Vivaldi’s fresh patch is that it simply blocks every ad in existence. That’s all well and good.
The report highlights that vivaldi’s Privacy settings (click the “V” icon in the upper right, then navigate down to “Settings”) have a ton of options, and I know I skimmed the page. Honestly, I don’t know exactly how.
According to the latest update, at the very bottom of the page, I have the “Block Trackers and Ads” option turned on. Did I make any tweaks? I honestly don’t remember. But the results speak for themselves. My settings currently have Vivaldi’s built-in Proton VPN turned on (for anonymity’s sake, rather than region hopping for Netflix or other streaming media) and then multiple options to block ads, including on “abusive sites,” and so on.
According to the latest update, i have no extensions installed except for a disabled McAfee plugin that apparently shipped with this Lenovo laptop. I receive no warnings at all about the need to turn off ad-blocking programs. YouTube? Clean and clear. I almost feel like I should be whispering this to a few trusted friends, as it’s been so effective. I typically use Edge for my daily browsing, but the lack of ads has slowly pulled me closer and closer to Vivaldi as my daily driver.
According to the latest update, why doesn’t it sync my feeds? Its mobile app could use some attention. But nifty little functions like tab tiling help make up for it. Even then, eliminating nuisance ads makes me truly happy, even if, yes, a curated combination of browser plugins can accomplish the same thing on other browsers. Vivaldi’s not perfect.
As part of the ongoing story, yes, the general public’s distaste for paying for the media it consumes drives me insane. (Why couldn’t we as a society demand something like dentistry should be free, instead?) But, as they say, I’m also a client. Yes, ads help pay my salary.
As part of the ongoing story, vivaldi is winning the war on ads, allowing me to surf more effectively and get stuff done. Consider me part of the team. For right now.
The report highlights that he has authored over 3,500 articles for PCWorld alone, covering PC microprocessors, peripherals, and Microsoft Windows, among other topics. Mark has written for publications including PC Magazine, Byte, eWEEK, Highly adopted Science and Electronic Buyers' News, where he shared a Jesse H. Neal Award for breaking news. He recently handed over a collection of several dozen Thunderbolt docks and USB-C hubs because his office simply has no more room. Mark has written for PCWorld for the last decade, with 30 years of experience covering technology.