Vivaldi Technologies, co-founded by former Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner, has released a major update to its Vivaldi Web browser, introducing sync and other new features.

The Web browser, which is built on top of the open-source Chromium project (the basis of Google’s Chrome browser), is aimed at desktop power users and was launched in 2016. Vivaldi 2.0 offers sync, floating side panels, resizable split-screen tabs and a fully customisable user interface.

The biggest new feature is the ability to sync data between multiple computers, including bookmarks and speed dials, saved password and autofill information, history, extension, and notes. Syncing wasn’t working when TechCentral tested on Wednesday — “bad gateway” and server errors prevented logging in, possibly because of high demand on Vivaldi’s servers following the launch of version 2.0.

“All synced data, including users’ passwords, is protected with an end-to-end data encryption and never shared in the clear with Vivaldi,” the company said in a statement. “To keep the user data safe, no third-party servers are used but only Vivaldi servers.”

The browser also offers Web panels, allowing users to display their favourite Web apps or sites in a split-screen alongside the primary window. They can now “float” them over the page, rather than resizing their main window. In version 2.0, users also get suggested Web panels of sites that they visit the most and the browser helps them check their messaging apps, news and social feeds.

Tab tiling — creating a split-screen view of tabs — can now be resized by dragging a tile’s borders. The adjusted layout remains the same after restarting the browser.

A list-style view has been added to the tab cycler feature, allowing users to find and view a list of open tabs and even change them.

Vivaldi’s default interface offers customisable keyboard shortcuts and mouse gestures. Version 2.0 allows users to open a recently viewed page by clicking the “back” or “forward” button using a modifier key (cmd or ctrl) or by middle-clicking the mouse. — (c) 2018 NewsCentral Media