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Mehrad :kde: :emacs: :rstats:

It is official, @Vivaldi have included advertisment into your address-bar suggestions. This is opt-out, so it is enabled by default and is triggered only after two characters in your address-bar.

For me, the address-bar in a browser is like terminal in Linux, what I type is sensitive and should not be cluttered with advert and junk. crossed a big red line here. Having advert in favorites and quickdial is one thing, having advert in address-bar is another.

vivaldi.com/blog/what-is-direc

Vivaldi Browser · What is Direct Match? | Vivaldi BrowserLet's find out how Direct Match, a new functionality, helps save time and reach the website of a familiar brand from any of our search fields.

@Mehrad @smallcircles @Vivaldi what were the benefits over firefox to start with?

@sumek That's what I was wondering as well

@queerthoughts I've installed Vivaldi to check out the features that someone mentioned in response. Tab stacks do look immensely useful! There are add-ons for Firefox that seem to simulate similar features, not sure how they stack up

@Mehrad @Vivaldi Totally agree with your point !
It’s a big NO !

@Mehrad @Vivaldi At least they do the matching locally in the browser and not on their servers, but yes, this is probably too much.
Also it doesn't always bring you to the homepage of the brand as you would expect. E.g. -> Samsung.com loads a page with Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra offering.

@sesivany @Mehrad @Vivaldi wait, the fact that they do the matching *locally* is a crucial point that was NOT mentioned in the original post, at the start of this discussion.

Thank you for bringing it up! 🙏

@Mehrad @Vivaldi I would expect that most people who use a browser as unknown as vivaldi are also people who configure their browsers to disable things they don't like.

Everybody likes free, but there is no free when the product or service requires money to exist. This is a minor annoyance and can be easily disabled.

@Mehrad Heh, welcome @Vivaldi into the adware section where Mozilla Firefox has been for a while.

@Mehrad
This is extremely disappointing. Web browser product placement. 🤢
@Vivaldi

@Mehrad @Vivaldi

Direct Match is a feature that helps you save time when you try to reach the website of a familiar brand from any of our search fields. It does so by providing a direct link to that brand’s webpage. The link is presented if you type a supported brand name, matched against a local list. Clicking such a link will earn us a small amount of revenue.
This seems way less intrusive than they ways in which Firefox has tried to find revenue in the past. I wouldn't classify this as an ad.

@Mehrad @Vivaldi I use Vivaldi. But I will drop it if I cant opt out.

@Mehrad @Vivaldi This is a sickness - thinking that advertisements can be attached to anything you do. I expect that the 'opt out' will get harder to find and eventually disappear.

@Mehrad @Vivaldi At least, it seems like it's matching a local list and only sends data if actually going to a sponsored website. Which I guess is similar from a privacy's point of view to having the ads in favorites and quick dial.

@Mehrad

Is this only the desktop versions?

According to the help file, you turn it off in Settings > Search but that setting doesn't exist in the Android version.

@Vivaldi

@Mehrad To me, the address bar should be just that - the address bar. Not the search bar, not the "awesome" bar, not the hide-the-actual-url bar, not the advertising bar or other mal feature. Those abominations should never have seen the light of day, much less survived the exposure.

@Mehrad
* The matching is done locally.
* The ad is shown as a ad.
* The keyword entered are not sent to the advertiser.
* No data stored by Vivaldi beyond click count.
* It's disable-able

Yeah, they are activating it by default as it's a "new feature". Once it's done, and you switch it off, they'll never switch it on again.

I feel like they have taken all the steps to keep it ~clean while having a possibility of a revenu.
No one else would have kept it that clean.

cc @HTeuMeuLeu @bohwaz

@Mehrad @HTeuMeuLeu @bohwaz
That said, yeah. It's not ideal.

But without targeted advertisement, it's hard to find revenu streams to pay a team of 35 people.

@jon, maybe another approach would be welcome on that particular feature. Would you _consider_ to open a Patreon page for Vivaldi with a monthly goal target, and if that target is reached, that "feature" is deactivate for everyone ?
I feel like it would be a good compromise, while being a new way of doing things.

cc @ruario

@Mehrad @Vivaldi

having this as opt-out and on by default, then trying to soft defend that it helps vivaldi funding, puts a massive hit on my trust of this browser and the developers. this should *never* be opt-out, it should be opt-in only, assuming it's kept as a "feature" at all.

leaking search and address bar outside the browser isn't something to try to balance and finesse. you should just not do it unless the user explicitly enables it.

@Mehrad@fosstodon.org @Vivaldi@social.vivaldi.net Honestly for me the breaking point was when the Address history didn't sync across devices despite having sync on. Such a basic feature and their forums were full of "Oh they're a small team - they can't do everything, stop asking for pointless things."