Vivaldi unveiled a number of productivity updates to its web browser, as well as integration with Mastodon, which the company says is “a key component of decentralized social networking.”
The self-proclaimed company behind the first web browser to have an instance of Mastodon (Vivaldi community), has now integrated the social platform into a sidebar that it hopes will cater to a growing group of people who are “tired of Big Tech social networks and their blocking algorithms.”
Founded by former CEO of Opera Software, Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, who is credited with co-creating the Opera browser, Vivaldi promises to be an independent and third-party investor-free platform to meet today’s privacy needs – a focused society.
Mastodon for Vivaldi
“Although you’ll find Vivaldi Social in a browser panel, you can also add any instance of Mastodon as a web panel to this sidebar,” the company explained in press release (opens in a new tab).
“This allows a web page or any Mastodon instance to be displayed in a browser side panel, creating a split-screen view.”
In addition to supporting this evolving platform, Vivaldi has also enhanced several core features that have been designed and tailored to the needs of advanced users.
In addition to pinning tabs to the tray, users will now be able to pin so-called tab stacks, allowing quick access to a number of frequently used websites. 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 a 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 were made as an update to the browser version 5.6 for Windows, macOS and Linux, which can be downloaded from the website Vivaldi’s website (opens in a new tab).