Vivaldi Browser
Vivaldi Browser Review. It has so many features, so much personality, and so little recognition…
I’m not just running WordPress sites, but I’m personally interested in web browsers. So, I’ve used Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and even dabbled in Brave Browser. However, despite using the web browsers mentioned above, I eventually returned to this web browser. That’s the Vivaldi browser.
There’s a lot to talk about with the Vivaldi browser, and I’ll be writing about it a lot. To start with a conclusion, “This browser is the best!” Honestly, that’s not the case. However, I do think that Vivaldi Browser is a web browser designed for people like me. There are certainly people who have used and mastered this browser longer than I have, but as someone who has been using Vivaldi Browser for several years, I’d like to write a somewhat detailed review of it.
- Throughout this article, there will be a lot of content comparing my experiences with Firefox, Edge, Chrome, and more. While some may not be familiar with Edge, there are probably many who haven’t tried Firefox, so please bear with me.
- To be honest, I haven’t used Naver Whale because it’s essentially a Vivaldi clone, and I’ve only briefly mentioned Opera in this review, as I haven’t used it much.
Table of Contents
- Vivaldi Browser Review. It has so many features, so much personality, and so little recognition…
- Vivaldi Browser is considered a kind of spiritual successor to the Opera browser. Of course, Opera still exists, but…
- Personally, I like the tabs feature the best in the Vivaldi browser.
- It has a good interface and features that Naver Whale is secretly copying.
- The more you use the internet, the more you realize the shortcomings of the Vivaldi browser.
- It’s undervalued, that’s for sure. A web browser that should definitely be mentioned a lot more than it is…
- Vivaldi Browser Summary
Vivaldi Browser is considered a kind of spiritual successor to the Opera browser. Of course, Opera still exists, but…
A web browser that places a great emphasis on personalization.
First of all, the Vivaldi Browser is known to have been created by the co-founder of the Opera browser. The Opera browser is still in the top 5 browsers because there are still some people who use it. (Honestly, Samsung Internet would have been number 5 if it had a PC version.) However, Opera was acquired by a Chinese company, so I’m not sure about its security. Therefore, I think they created the Vivaldi browser as a spiritual successor to preserve the purity (?) of the past.
That’s why Vivaldi Browser is said to inherit many aspects from the Opera browser. So whereas the more popular Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc. have a “very simple framework and fill in the gaps with extensions,” Vivaldi’s browser is built from the ground up to be very hipster. Of course, the Vivaldi browser also supports Google Chrome extensions, but it’s crammed with so many features that you don’t really need to use them.
This development philosophy has been consistent, and even seemingly unnecessary features are quietly being added over time. Other web browsers might ask, “Why is this there? Other web browsers are constantly adding things that make you wonder, “Why is this there?
First and foremost, it comes with built-in tracker and ad blocking. However, for ad blocking, ublock, which is already popular, seems to be more powerful in terms of performance. There are many ads that it can’t remove, and on the flip side, it sometimes blocks ads unnecessarily…
The theme is also very customizable – for starters, you can control the colors. In the past, you could only change colors to some extent, but recent updates have made the color palette much more diverse, and you can even download themes created by other users. People say Firefox is the most personalized browser, and Edge is a little more themed, but when it comes to customization, Vivaldi is the king.
이 개인화 및 후술할 수많은 기능들 등 대부분의 특징들은 비발디 브라우저 안드로이드 버전에서도 대부분 적용되고 있습니다. 테마도 동기화가 되는 것같아서 만족스럽습니다만 아무래도 이런 테마같은 외형적인 부분은 데스크탑같이 화면이 커야 더 좋긴 합니다.
Personally, I like the tabs feature the best in the Vivaldi browser.
I actually write Vivaldi because of this feature.
One of the reasons I personally use Vivaldi is because its tab features are the most robust among existing web browsers. Well-known web browsers like Google Chrome have been simplifying their tab features, and Apple’s Safari, while having tab functionality, doesn’t prioritize tabs as its core feature. However, Vivaldi, in its typical hipster fashion, takes the opposite approach and pushes tab functionality to its limits.
For instance, in Chrome or Edge, when you open many tabs, the later ones get squeezed to the right of the screen to the point where they are not visible, making them inaccessible. In contrast, Vivaldi allows tabs to become smaller while remaining clickable. By the way, Firefox excels in this aspect. When you open many tabs, it displays arrows on the left and right sides, allowing you to scroll through the tabs on the right without making them too small, and double-clicking the arrows lets you scroll quickly. Oh Firefox…
또 비발디는 탭끼리 합치기도 쉬운데, 유튜브 영상들 등 사이트 주소가 비슷한 친구들끼리는 자동으로 확 묶어 주기도 합니다. 그리고 요즘은 그 수준을 넘어서서 마치 탭 속의 탭 느낌으로 무려 이중 탭이 되어서 묶은 탭은 기존 탭들 밑에 생겨서 관리할 수 있는 구조가 되었습니다. 예전에는 탭을 촤악 줄이기만 하고 탭 개수가 뜨고 뭉쳐져 있는 탭 위에 커서를 올려놓으면 그 탭들을 작게 다 보여주는 수준이었다면, 요즘은 무슨 인셉션처럼 만들어졌는데 나름대로 혁신적이라고 할 수 있겠습니다. 그리고 묶은 탭끼리 화면에 동시에 볼 수 있도록 만든다거나 이런 기능 역시 당연히 가능합니다. 이 부분도 나름 세세해서 밑으로만 쭉 내리거나 혹은 화면 전체를 탭으로 덮어버리는 엄청난 짓도 가능합니다…
It has a good interface and features that Naver Whale is secretly copying.
It’s probably number one among all web browsers in terms of built-in count…
In addition to the tabs, it’s nice to have a separate window for managing downloads, pages viewed, etc. I know that Naver Whale copied the overall UI including this part. Unlike Chrome or Edge, which require opening a new window to manage downloaded files, Vivaldi provides a sidebar format on the left side (which can be customized) for easy access and convenience.
앞서 비발디가 기능이 이미 많음에도 기능이 계속 추가 중이라고 했는데, 비발디 브라우저 내에 캘린더, 메일, 구독(rss), 리더 등이 다 별도로 마련되어 있습니다. 다만 저 네 친구는 모두 강력한 친구들이 각각 있어서 대체가 가능할지는 모르겠습니다… 간단하게 언급하면 캘린더는 구글 캘린더나 아웃록 등 많은 친구들이 있고, 메일 역시 아웃록 외에 여러 소프트웨어들이 있습니다. 구독 역시 Feedly가 있죠. 리더는 Pocket이나 Instapaper외에도 엣지의 ‘콜렉션’이 조금 더 강력한 것 같습니다. 뭐 그렇다 해도 쓰시는 분들은 잘 쓰시겠죠… 개인적으로 저 친구들 중에서 구독 기능은 아직 좀 많이 부족합니다. 많이많이… 그래도 패치가 자주 되는 편이니 언젠가는 좋아지리라고 믿고 있습니다.
Not every update of the Vivaldi browser has been immediately convincing. There were a few things that I secretly wondered why we were updating, and one of them was games built into the browser. I used to question, “Why on earth?” However, after experimenting with Opera recently, I understood the reason – because this feature was also present in Opera… Additionally, there have been updates related to color changes in the browser during gaming collaborations with Razer Again, I was like, “Why don’t they add this?” but it’s a feature in the Opera browser. I’d say it’s a spiritual successor…
최근에는 자그마치 번역 기능이 업데이트되었습니다. Lingvanex라는 앱과 연동되어서 제공되는 기능인 듯합니다. 번역 인터페이스는 초창기에는 거의 무쓸모 수준이었으나 지금은 사이드바로 번역기 부분을 이동시켜서 그래도 사용에는 무리가 없을 정도가 되었습니다. 이 번역기는 본래 유료입니다. 그런데 비발디가 어떻게 이런 서비스를 제공하는지 궁금했는데 뭔가 투자를 했다거나 그런 뭔가 있었던 듯합니다. 비발디가 자체적으로도 어떻게 운영하는지도 좀 신기했는데 의외로 발이 넓습니다 오오… 다만 위의 제 리뷰에서 적었듯이 적어도 한국어 번역은 영 꽝입니다.
In addition to this, there is also an alarm feature within the browser, which I personally don’t like. Among other features, there’s even a browser pause function (probably to encourage focus on tasks), which I personally don’t find useful, but some may appreciate it… Moreover, it comes with a built-in page capture feature and Picture in Picture (PIP) functionality. Note that this feature used to require a separate extension to be installed in Chrome. I’m not sure at this point… There is also a notepad feature, but I personally don’t like it. It used to be really just notes, but at least now it has some really basic formatting. There are undoubtedly more features that I haven’t mentioned, as there are really numerous features… Furthermore, it’s even better because it supports Chrome extensions, which are considered a basic feature of modern web browsers. And, of course, there’s a secret mode.
In late 2022, there was yet another update introducing Vivaldi Social, essentially adding social media features. However, this feature is not yet integrated into the browser itself; it’s a site created by the development team. Perhaps in future updates, some functionality that integrates with the browser will be added, but to be honest, it’s unclear how they intend to expand upon it beyond simply opening a window. In fact, besides well-known platforms like Twitter and Facebook, there are quite a few lesser-known social networks out there. However, most of these less mainstream ones tend to disappear without a trace. I hope Vivaldi Social doesn’t meet the same fate.
The more you use the internet, the more you realize the shortcomings of the Vivaldi browser.
Vivaldi browser does have several drawbacks. The criticisms on Namu Wiki seem a bit oversimplified; it’s likely they were written by someone who doesn’t use Vivaldi extensively. Firstly, Vivaldi browser is said to be a fast browser, but despite its extensive functionality, it doesn’t subjectively appear as fast as you might expect. If I were more of an expert, I might have conducted tests, but as a non-expert, I can only describe it based on personal perception… In reality, when you simply open two web browsers side by side for comparison, you can see that it’s not slower than other browsers at all. However, for some reason, when used independently, it feels somewhat sluggish… That’s the recurring impression.
However, the real downside of the Vivaldi browser is that it uses Chromium, but for some reason, it appears to have an unfamiliar structure, resulting in subtle incompatibilities with several websites. You’ll come across phrases like ‘This browser does not comply with web standards. Please use Chrome, Edge, etc.’ more frequently than you’d expect. Honestly, compared to some, these issues are relatively mild, but there are still quite a few websites where Vivaldi struggles to gain access. I use the browser normally, but when it pops up like that, I get annoyed.
Furthermore, I’m not sure if this is an extension of these drawbacks, but there are more frequent instances where card payments don’t work within the web browser than one might think. I use Shinhan Card, and there are cases where the app card payment window either doesn’t pop up or doesn’t appear at all… Additionally, it’s quite common to encounter situations where the address search window doesn’t appear when making purchases or registering on online shopping websites. Furthermore, for some reason, my blog appears slightly different in Vivaldi compared to how it looks in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and other browsers. Consequently, when I encounter issues with my blog, I sometimes use multiple browsers simultaneously for troubleshooting. While this is an essential step for compatibility, the fact that Vivaldi’s structure is somewhat different makes it feel distinctively necessary to verify.
Another disappointment is the lack of an iOS version.There are related questions on the official website, and the responses indicate that there’s no iOS version because Chromium isn’t compatible, and they’d need to use other tools. It’s written like this, and then you’re arguing with the logic, “Why is there an iOS version when most other browsers use Chromium?”. I’ve been rationalizing it with thoughts like, ‘Naver, Microsoft, and Google have top-notch talent, so…’ Brave browser has a development team consisting of some exceptionally talented individuals, after all… Honestly, the Vivaldi browser would probably love to develop an iOS version itself. However, it’s noteworthy that there is a Mac version.
Aside from that, the interface itself isn’t bad, as the web browser is designed to wrap around the entire screen, but if you like things to be clean or simple, you might be disappointed.
- Someone on Namu Wiki seems to have made significant revisions to the section about drawbacks based on what I wrote… It’s strangely satisfying(?) in a way. Thank you!
It’s undervalued, that’s for sure. A web browser that should definitely be mentioned a lot more than it is…
Not only the function but also the movement itself is hipster.
If you look at their recent posts, you’ll see that they’re working with some kind of driverless car company. In addition, the default search engines in the browser can also be set as the default search engines, not just Google and DuckDuckGo, but also some strange ones you’ve never heard of. They are extraordinary browsers that all have their own personality. However, I wonder how many users are using this in Korea and abroad. The latest update brought back a new search engine, but who the hell makes these things…
Fortunately, they have a somewhat widespread presence, and frequent updates suggest that they won’t fade into obscurity anytime soon. While their recognition is undoubtedly low, one can still consider it a blessing… According to the official website, they have around 2.4 million active users (recently increased by 100,000, wow!). To be honest, this is a rather small number, but considering that Vivaldi users tend to be those who have specific reasons for using it instead of other browsers, excluding those using browsers for professional purposes, they can be considered loyal users. Of course, there’s some concern with the Mozilla Foundation, which oversees Firefox, appearing to be somewhat shaky recently, but considering that it’s a nonprofit foundation, I assume that’s why it’s facing those challenges.
It’s clear that Vivaldi has distinctive characteristics and clear advantages, which is why users tend to return to it after exploring other browsers. I hope it lasts forever… I think it would have been a lot better if they did something with coins like Brave Browser, but I guess they didn’t think that far ahead. I mentioned it earlier, but to be honest, the revenue structure is quite weak, and it’s a cause for significant concern. It was the Vivaldi browser, a true hipster’s browser that had us both excited and worried.
Vivaldi Browser Summary
Good point
- Has the most out-of-the-box features of any web browser in existence
- Not just more features, but more “unique” features
- It’s fast for its wide range of features.
Disappointing point
- Something feels slow when it’s objectively never slow
- Some sites or windows won’t open or don’t show up at all.
- No iOS version
- It may be frustrating for those who like brevity.
