Co-Founder and Former CEO of Opera, Jon von Tetzchner today launched a new, Chromium-based browser called Vivaldi. The new browser is pretty clearly aimed at power users.
Vivaldi is a pretty similar in features, to the old days-Opera. While Opera somewhere lost its way in the middle and practically forgot its very purpose, Jon says that he aims to continue the work he started with Opera, albeit with a different browser.
Vivaldi comprises of features like speed dial, which is similar to what Opera offers so as to easily access your saved bookmarks. It also has a unique, ‘Quick Commands’ feature. which lets you forget your mouse, while browsing web.
Talking about why their team left Opera to develop this new browser, Vivaldi said,
The browser we once loved has changed its direction. Sadly, it is no longer serving its community of users and contributors who helped build the browser in the first place.
The team further says,
We must make a new browser. A browser for ourselves and a browser for our friends. A browser that is fast, but also a browser that is rich in functionality, highly flexible and puts the user first. A browser that is made for you.
Post starting to build Opera in 1994, Tetzchner resigned as the CEO some three and a half years back. He then came back with ‘Vivaldi’, almost a year back, as a forum for ex-Opera people to come and discuss. Well, it was and it is pretty clear that it wasn’t just a forum.
Vivaldi comes up with certain unique features to offer. It has that ‘Quick Commands’ feature, which lets you use your keyboard throughout your entire browsing experience. Quick Commands allow you to quickly search through various settings, history, open tabs, bookmarks and more with a single keyboard shortcut.
In an interview with Reuters, Jon von Tetzchner said that they have designed Vivaldi for high-volume users who “have problems fitting all their open tabs on one screen”. The team behind Vivaldi aims to make Quick Command menu highly customisable, allowing you to make your own commands and run them quickly.
Future Vivaldi version will include features such as Mail, Syncing, Spatial Navigation, Performance and extensions. What’s interesting is that Vivaldi is probably coming up with an indigenous mail app. However, they won’t say anything more about it.
With syncing, your Notes, bookmarks, History and session get synced across your different devices. Spatial navigation allows you to navigate the Web easily, using only your keyboard. They are probably looking to remove mouse from your digital life.
The Vivaldi team is also looking to further enhance performance. This is what they say,
Our aim is to be the fastest browser in the universe but we are not talking about theoretical speed here. It’s all about efficiency. We focus on making it quicker and faster for you to find things and getting things done!
I started using Vivaldi’s Tech Preview and it definitely looks much smoother and faster as compared to others. The interface is strikingly different from everything else you have seen till date, with obsessive use of lines. We’ll have to wait for some more time, till Jon and his team release a full public preview.
