Direct Match: How It Works, Privacy, and More

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4 Why should I click on these suggestions?

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What is Direct Match?

Direct Match is a feature that gives you faster access to certain websites by suggesting them directly in the Address Field, Search Field, or Speed Dial search. When there’s a match for what you’ve typed, Direct Match saves you the extra step of searching through your search engine, helping you get where you need to go with fewer clicks.

How does Direct Match work?

When you start typing a search term in the Address Field, Search Field, or Speed Dial search, Vivaldi checks a locally stored file to see if there’s a match. If it finds one, an item labeled “Direct Match” will appear in the drop-down, suggesting a website related to what you’ve typed. Clicking on the suggestion takes you straight to the site, skipping the search engine entirely.

Here’s a quick overview:

Where you’ll see it: Address Field, Search Field, or Speed Dial search
What it does: Provides quick suggestions for websites from local data
How it benefits you: Reduces extra steps and gets you to your intended site faster

And like anything else in Vivaldi, you can customize the order in which items appear in the Address Field—so whether it’s Bookmarks, search suggestions, or Direct Match results, you can make it work exactly how you like from Settings > Address Bar > Drop-Down Menu Priority. On mobile, you can give less priority to Direct Match suggestions from Settings > Address Bar.

Privacy aspects

We take your privacy seriously, and Direct Match is no exception.

No tracking: What you type stays private—it’s not tracked, stored, or sent to anyone, including us. So there’s no need to worry about data being used for profiling or anything like that.
Local data only: All the data used for matching is stored locally on your device, which means that nobody—us included—can track what you’re typing.

On our end, we don’t keep any permanent records of who clicked which link, and we don’t store any IP addresses. In some cases, clicking a suggestion might involve a third-party affiliate network, which could set cookies for correctly attributing revenue to the right party, like how all affiliate links work across the web.

Why should I click on these suggestions?

Direct Match is all about convenience. It helps you reach the websites you’re looking for more quickly, and at the same time, by clicking on these suggestions, you’re supporting Vivaldi’s ongoing development, allowing us to keep offering you a better browsing experience.

Disable Direct Match

If you decide that Direct Match isn’t for you, it’s easy to turn off. Just follow these simple steps:

Go to Settings > Search > Allow Search Suggestions.
Tick the box for Enable Direct Match.

To disable Direct Match on mobile devices:

Go to the Vivaldi menu > Settings > Address Bar.
Toggle off Enable Direct Match.

We hope that Direct Match makes your browsing a little faster and easier, while still respecting your privacy, just the way it should be.