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Vivaldi has unveiled a number of productivity-enhancing updates to its web browser, in addition to integration for Mastodon, which the company claims is “an important part of decentralized social networking.”
The self-proclaimed first web browser company with a Mastodon instance (Vivaldi Social), it has now integrated its social networking platform into the sidebar, which it hopes will serve a growing audience of individuals who are “tired of Big Tech’s social networks and their lock-in algorithms.”
Founded by former Opera Software CEO Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, who is credited with co-creating the Opera browser, Vivaldi promises to be a platform independent and free of outside investors, enabling it to meet the modern needs of a privacy-oriented society.
Mastodon for Vivaldi
“While you’ll find Vivaldi Social in the browser panel, you can also add any Mastodon instance you want as a web panel to this sidebar,” the company explained in a statement. press release (opens in new tab).
“Doing this displays the website or a Mastodon instance in the sidebar of your browser, creating a split screen view.”
In addition to supporting this emerging platform, Vivaldi has also tweaked some core features designed and catered for power users.
In addition to pinning tabs to the bar, users can now pin so-called Tab Stacks to the bar, giving them quick access to multiple frequently used web pages. The Settings page has also been updated with a new and more user-friendly interface to speed up navigation.
Finally, with privacy in mind, a private search engine you.com (opens in new tab) has been added to the list of integrated search engines, although it is currently limited to users in the US, Canada, UK and Germany.
The changes rolled out as an update to version 5.6 of the browser for Windows, macOS, and Linux, available for download at the Vivaldi website (opens in new tab).