By now you've all probably heard about the latest shenanigans from Google and their love for in-browser AI features (if you don't, this is the story: https://www.theverge.com/tech/924933/google-chrome-4gb-gemini-nano-ai-features).

Our team has been inspecting the Chromium code and disabling stuff from the very first version of Vivaldi (we have some posts about this in our blog, such as https://vivaldi.com/blog/news/alert-no-google-topics-in-vivaldi/ or https://vivaldi.com/blog/no-google-vivaldi-users-will-not-get-floced/).

We've also been very outspoken about our dislike of the built-in AI trend in the browser industry, but in case there's still any doubts: yes, we disable all Gemini-related features, and we've been doing it for a while.

#Ai #Browser #Chrome #Chromium #Google #Gemini

Let's do another round of European alternatives to Big Tech, because we care and we don't gatekeep 🙂 :

- Chrome, Edge, Safari --> @Vivaldi
- iCloud, Google Drive --> @protonprivacy @infomaniak_network, @Mastodon, Cryptee
- Google Search --> @StartpageSearch @Qwant , @ecosia, @Mojeek, Tiger.ch
- MS Office --> @libreoffice
- Gmail --> @Tutanota , @protonprivacy Mail
- iPhone --> @jolla @volla
- iOS, Android --> @murena e/OS

…& much more: https://europeantechmap.eu

32 years ago I started working on my first browser, Opera. I left Opera in 2011, but two years later I co-founded Vivaldi. Thus I have been making browsers now for 32 years, with a short break there between 2011 and 2013.

I have always felt that this work is important and no less today than before as more and more of you see the importance of alternatives to Big Tech.

Vivaldi is a European company with headquarters in Norway, servers in Iceland and team in Norway, Iceland, across Europe, Japan and a couple in the US.

We try our best to adapt to your needs. We build powerful browsers, with a lot of flexibility.

I welcome you to try us out and share with your friends!

#Windows #Macos #Linux #Android #iOS #TEchnology #EU #Europa #Norway #Iceland #Browser #Vivaldi #BigTech

https://vivaldi.com

Big Tech is at it again.

Some of you might have seen this already. Google has announced a new policy for Android app developers, which would require them to seek Google’s permission if they want to distribute their apps outside of the Google Play Store (on their own website or on alternative app stores). This would entail:

1) agreeing to their terms and conditions
2) paying a fee
3) uploading a government ID

Which is wrong on so many levels. Nobody should be forced to register with Google if they don’t want to use their services.

In doing so they would be extending their gatekeeping (tentacles) into distribution channels where they’re just not a legitimate authority.

At Vivaldi, we believe you have the right to run whatever software you want on a device you own. That’s why we’ve co-signed this open letter, together with other 53 organisations, requesting Google to back off on the proposed policy before it enters into force.

(Plus, they have have a pretty cool logo 😄)

https://keepandroidopen.org/open-letter/

RE: https://social.vivaldi.net/@brucelawson/116170920754461267

Norwegian humour at its finest 👇