14 DAY TRIAL // I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again: Vivaldi is one of the best browsers out there, and despite not having the market share of Google Chrome, for instance, it’s at least as capable as it’s more famous rival.
And as compared to the likes of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, Vivaldi’s purpose is to put user in control of everything, while at the same time providing them with an insane amount of customization options.
The team working on Vivaldi obviously doesn’t want to stop here, and the most recent preview builds of the browser come with additional improvements in this regard.
The latest snapshot, for example, comes with an option aimed at private windows.
More specifically, beginning with this update, users can choose a different theme for private browser windows, thus helping them better distinguish the regular windows from the ones running in private mode.
“Our theme support is second to none but allowing you seemingly endless ways to colorize your windows has come at a price for some users. Outside of certain cues in the address bar, which can be hidden, it can be hard to tell normal and private windows apart. So we are providing even more options,” the Vivaldi team explains.
In pure Vivaldi style, this new option isn’t forced on users, so if you’re just okay with the current implementation and you still tell the two types of windows apart, you can continue using the same theme for both.
“We are introducing a brand new “private” theme (applied by default) and also the ability to set unique themes for normal and private windows. However, if you feel comfortable distinguishing the windows via the other visual clues we provide, you can also set the colors of both window types to match again. Unlike some competitors, we do not try to force your workflow but instead provide you with the tools, to find a workflow that works best for you,” the parent company explains.
You can find the new setting in the configuration screen of Vivaldi under the theme section.
Personally, I think this is a feature that every browser should have, especially as more and more people use the private mode on a regular basis. And theming support isn’t just something that makes the browsing window look prettier, but also a feature that scores extra points in terms of usability.
The new Vivaldi snapshot also comes with small tweaks to the URL in the address bar, so it’s easier to spot fake websites that could be used to launch online scams.
“You may have noticed changes to the URL field in recent snapshots. We now highlight the URL fragment that relates the base domain (eTLD+1 “effective top-level domain, plus one” for the technically minded). The rest of the URL remains visible but your attention is drawn to this core part first. In addition, if this key fragment is obscured because of a narrow (resized) window, we will warn you. This makes it harder for scam artists to use URLs like www.google.fakesite.com to present themselves as another company. It should now be much clearer, who runs the base domain, while still giving you the ability to read all the parts of the URL,” the team explains in the release notes of this snapshot.
Needless to say, all these improvements are currently part of a testing build of Vivaldi, but if everything goes according to the plan, they should make their way to the stable version rather sooner than later. For now, just remember that running Vivaldi snapshot as a daily driver isn’t recommended.