NetCaptor: A Browser That Was Ahead Of It's Time
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There used to be a browser called NetCaptor (nee SimulBrowse). It lasted from 1997-2005, it seems to have been ahead of it's time. For example, it had tabs in 1998, two years before Opera. Here's it's features list from Wikipedia:
- Tab-based browsing interface
- QuickSearch: Allows you to perform search engine queries directly from the address bar. For example, to search for "testing" on Google, you would simply type "g testing" into any tab's address bar.
- Aliases: Like QuickSearch, except that they do not require you to enter a search term as a parameter. For example, typing "g" would take you to the Google front page. Can be used to replace Favorites.
- Automatic data wiper: Allows you to clear usage data, temporary internet files, cookies, and more whenever NetCaptor is closed. Supports several different file wiping methods.
- CaptorGroups: Essentially, grouped Favorites that can be opened all at once. You could, for example, have several news sites in one single CaptorGroup, then use that group to open all the sites the next time you want to look at news.
- PopupCaptor: Pop-up blocking feature capable of blocking unrequested popups, or filtering them based on URL matches (i.e. all popups from a certain website only).
URL Blocking: Allows you to prevent anything coming from the specified URL from loading. For example, you can prevent the loading of all data (images, sound, ads, etc.) sent from a certain website. - Quick access to settings: Quick access to things like security settings or cookies. You can also quickly enable or disable functions like JavaScript or ActiveX.
- Quick access to useful websites: Quickly translate the current page using translation engines like BabelFish, access an archived copy of the website using the Internet Archive, look up Whois information for the site, or perform other user-defined tasks.
- A side bar and panel that listed search results.
A lot of those features are quite familiar to Vivaldi users, and even users of any modern web browser. CaptorGroups sounds like sessions, URL Blocking sounds like content/ad blocking, QuickSearch sounds like search nicknames. I don't know if Opera or NetCaptor came out with these features first. But either way, this is a noteworthy bit of Internet history. If the guy who made this browser is still around, maybe Vivaldi should hire him.
And for those of you who don't know why I'm bringing up Opera: Opera was the first browser von Tetzchner created. He left the Opera company to create Vivaldi, because the company was messing Opera up.
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@waterblur said in NetCaptor: A Browser That Was Ahead Of It's Time:
I don't Vivaldi has a popup blocker yet. I've had to install an extension for that.
Vivaldi does have a pop-up blocker. But I think it's just the default Chromium pop-up blocker, so it's not very good. Well, there is the Vivaldi ad-blocker. I think that will block a lot of pop-ups.
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