THIS NEW WEB BROWSER MADE ME GIVE UP GOOGLE CHROME
VIVALDI’S INVENTIVE NEW FEATURES HELP GET
THINGS DONE ON THE WEB.
I used to love
Google Chrome for its speed and minimalism, but lately our relationship has
deteriorated.
Lately,
Google’s web browser has seemed sluggish—not just in terms of performance, but
in its willingness to try new ideas. While other browsers have introduced
features like page annotation, reading view, and improved private browsing, Chrome has stagnated. Its look
and feel still have a Windows XP feel, and even its app store is a shambles.
But quitting
Chrome wasn’t easy, as the last six years of daily use had left me extremely
picky about how a browser should behave. I simply couldn’t find an alternative
that gave me enough good reasons to switch.
That changed a
few weeks ago, when I downloaded the beta version of Vivaldi. Even though
it’s a work in progress, it already fixes some of my long-standing frustrations
with Chrome. Even better, it invents lots of new features that make browsing
the web more pleasant and efficient. As someone who uses a web browser every
day for work, it’s now hard to imagine going back.
Under the hood,
Vivaldi is based on the Chromium, the same open-source code that powers Chrome.
This might earn some derision from browser snobs, but in practice it allows
Vivaldi to borrow some basic Chrome features and even support Chrome
extensions, while distinguishing itself with surface-level features.
To that end,
Vivaldi is unashamedly bloated. Whereas Chrome made a name for itself by
getting out of the user’s way, Vivaldi throws a bunch of ideas at the wall in
the hope that users will find one that sticks.
In 2015, it’s
an approach that makes a surprising amount of sense. As PCs have pushed further
away from casual use and more toward being a tool for getting things done, a
browser for power users is becoming more appealing.
My favorite
Vivaldi feature by far is called Web Panels. They’re somewhat like bookmarks,
but instead of opening a full browser tab, Web Panels slide out next to
whatever tab you have open, putting the two pages side-by-side. Visually, it’s
similar to the multitasking features in Windows 10 and iOS 9, but contained
within a browser.
I’ve mainly
been using Web Panels for applications like Gmail, Google Keep, Hipchat, and
TweetDeck. I can reference a web page while writing an email, take notes while
doing some research, or just peek at messages without opening a full tab. Web
Panels are even handy for music sites, staying hidden until you need to change
the track.
The concept of
Web Panels is not new, having appeared in some versions of the Opera browser.
(Vivaldi creator Jon von Tetzchner was one of Opera’s founders.) But in the age
of responsive web design, it feels like an idea whose time has finally come.
Most websites these days will automatically reflow to fit whatever window size
they’re given, so you can easily view the content of two pages at once.
Web Panels
aren’t perfect. I wish there was a way to pop one out into a full tab, and
assign different window sizes to each Panel. But compared to juggling multiple
browser tabs, they're a more efficient way to access the websites I often use.
In a way, they remind me of when I discovered browser tabs in the early 2000s.
Suddenly, it's hard to imagine browsing the web without them.
Vivaldi’s other
benefits aren’t huge on their own, but add up to a browser that seems more in
tune with the state of the web and desktop software compared to Chrome.
In Windows 10,
for instance, Vivaldi’s sharp edges and flat design meld better with
Microsoft’s operating system. You can choose from light or dark themes, and
there’s also a way to have the color of browser tabs correspond with the color
scheme of the website you’re on.
Vivaldi’s mouse
and trackpad experience also outdoes Chrome, despite being based on the same
code. Two-finger scrolling seems to work better with Microsoft’s Precision
Trackpad drivers (as seen in the Surface Pro and Surface Book), and smooth
scrolling is supported out of the box. (Chrome has third-party extensions to
avoid jerky scrolling animations, but they require a lot of tinkering to get
the right feel, and often choke on resource-intensive web pages.)
To top it off,
Vivaldi is deeply customizable, even letting you disable some of its key
features. For instance, I don’t particularly care for Tab Stacks, which let
users group multiple pages under a single browser tab, so I went into Vivaldi’s
settings and shut them off. Ditto for mouse shortcuts, animations, and
thumbnail tab previews. If you want a minimalist browser, you can likely still
achieve it through Vivaldi’s settings menu.
Before you get
too excited about Vivaldi, keep in mind that it’s still in beta, and has plenty
of rough edges. For instance, you can’t drag tabs between separate windows or
into a new window, and I sorely miss the ability to pin websites to the Windows
taskbar or Start menu.
Vivaldi can be
unstable as well. It rarely crashes entirely, but sometimes pages become
unresponsive, requiring either a new tab or a full restart. Compared to Chrome
or Microsoft’s Edge browser, I’ve also found that Vivaldi can lag on some web
pages and PDF documents, and some websites, such as Twitter, inexplicably load
the mobile version instead of the desktop site.
In addition to
working out those kinks, Vivaldi must do more to build out its browser’s
services. Plans for a built-in email client have yet to materialize, and a tool
for taking notes on web pages doesn’t include anyway to sync those notes across
devices. You also can’t sync bookmarks, tabs, or settings, at least without
third-party extensions.
But even in its
unfinished state, Vivaldi has proven useful enough for me to stick with it,
well past the point where the novelty of a new browser usually wears off.
I don’t blame
Google for its conservatism. Chrome’s user base is so huge that any drastic
changes in appearance or features could trigger a backlash. At the same time,
desktop software isn’t fashionable anymore compared to mobile apps. Why rock
the boat?
By comparison,
Vivaldi is comfortable in its own skin as a tool for power users. The company
has kept its expectations low in terms of usage—Von Tetzchner told me in
February that 2 million active users would be enough to break even—and refers
to itself as "a web browser for our friends." As someone who relies
on a web browser every day for getting work done, that’s the group I’d rather
be part of.
BY JARED NEWMAN
http://www.fastcompany.com/3054029/this-new-web-browser-made-me-give-up-google-chrome?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=1&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=12042015
No comments:
Post a Comment