A new, speedier browser has arrived in the form of Vivaldi 7.2, giving its CEO the opportunity to protest the power of tech giants.
Vivaldi 7.2 is snappy, although unlikely to convince users to switch from their usual browser. As with previous versions, it is highly customizable, and in 7.2, the company reckons some users will experience load times that are "twice as fast" due to "optimized connection handling."
Your mileage may vary, but we found it noticeably quicker than alternatives including Chrome and Brave. Remember when Chrome was the faster, lightweight alternative to Internet Explorer? Those were the days.
Vivaldi uses Chromium to render web pages but focuses on enhancements outside the core engine, be it a smarter and faster address bar, a new keyboard shortcut priority list, or integrated email and calendar.
The company – which has a tiny marketshare, even trickier to track since Vivaldi stopped putting the browser into the user string – aims to capitalize on growing user dissatisfaction with tech giants by promoting its privacy-focused browser.
Vivaldi's CEO, Jon von Tetzchner, told The Register that the web had descended to "digital feudalism" due to the influence of the tech giants. "Today," he said, "a handful of companies control not just the browsers people use, but the infrastructure of the internet itself. If we don't push back, the future of the web will belong to the gatekeepers, not the people."
The word "gatekeepers" should be familiar to followers of the European Commission (EC) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Vivaldi was a signatory to a letter sent to the EC last year decrying the exemption of Microsoft Edge as a gatekeeper. Gatekeepers, in the context of the DMA, "are large digital platforms providing so-called core platform services, such as online search engines, app stores, messenger services."
Once designated as a gatekeeper, a technology platform will come under greater scrutiny and be given duties including interoperability with third parties, not preventing users from uninstalling a pre-installed app, no tracking without consent, and so on.
Von Tetzchner also called for more substantial and decisive regulation to ensure "fair play," describing it as "the only way to protect the public's right to choose the technology they use, and to ensure that their personal data isn't sold or used against them."
He went on to criticize the use of fines to deter monopolistic behavior, describing them as "just the cost of doing business for tech giants."
"Companies should be required to do better, not just to pay to say sorry."
"This is the moment to decide what kind of internet we want," he said. "Do we want a web that belongs to its users, or do we want an internet controlled by a handful of corporations whose primary business model is surveillance and lock-in?" ®