To combat what it considers to be unfair gatekeeping of its browser, Vivaldi stated that it’s masquerading as Microsoft Edge to allow customers to realize entry to Bing Chat.

The new Vivaldi 6.1 replace tells web sites that it’s truly Microsoft Edge, utilizing what it calls Client Hints. Vivaldi has used this know-how earlier than, figuring out itself as Google Chrome, to try to accomplish the identical process. Now, the corporate says, some web sites are seeing by its masks and blocking Vivaldi regardless.

If you entry Bing’s AI-powered Chat characteristic on Edge, the browser lets you converse with Microsoft’s AI chatbot. You’ll have the same expertise with Google Chrome. On Vivaldi, your entry to the positioning is blocked by an enormous popup that asks you to obtain Edge as a substitute. What Vivaldi 6.1 merely hopes to perform is permitting you to entry Bing Chat with out the necessity to obtain Microsoft Edge or Chrome.

Edge, Chrome, and Vivaldi are all primarily based upon Chromium, the open-source model of the Chrome browser. But Vivaldi has complained before that the online is prejudiced in direction of the Chrome browser, and its personal model nomenclature. As a outcome, the browser firm has tried to transition away from utilizing an figuring out string referred to as the UserAgent to what’s referred to as Client Hints, which arguably helps customers keep extra privateness by merely telling the positioning what it must know.

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“Vivaldi would like to proudly announce itself as Vivaldi, but the current state of the web makes this difficult,” Vivaldi stated in a blog post. The firm hopes that Bing Chat will now be accessible by way of Vivaldi Mobile on Android, in addition to the desktop model. It can’t be identified for certain, nonetheless, whether or not Vivaldi’s strategy will work.

For its half, Microsoft stated that it’ll make Bing Chat obtainable to different browsers, ultimately. “The company plans to bring the new experience to other browsers over time and we’ll be sure to keep you updated on the latest,” a Microsoft consultant stated by way of electronic mail.

What is true, nonetheless, is that the dogfight to lure customers to AI is turning into more and more determined. The Verge discovered that Microsoft was hiding Bing Chat searches for “Chrome” by displaying some great benefits of Bing Chat, as a substitute. And Microsoft, which initially blocked Google Chrome customers from accessing Bing Chat, now permits entry — although on our machine, entry was solely allowed on the second attempt. Vivaldi appears to be caught within the crossfire.

Otherwise, Vivaldi 6.1 introduces minor modifications: You’ll have the ability to copy hyperlinks saved in Vivaldi’s Tab Stacks and ship them to different customers. You may also use Tab Stacks and Tab Tiling inside Vivaldi’s Workspaces, one other nifty organizational characteristic the corporate launched in April. Vivaldi additionally plans to launch on iOS quickly, it stated.