Edge is Heading to Chrome Engine
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) used to be the default browser for around 95% of Windows users. Eventually, better alternatives began to rise, forcing IE to lose its grip, from ruling the internet to only having retained about 1.98% of its users, according to web traffic analysis firm, StatCounter. On the other hand, Microsoft’s rival, Google Chrome, currently has approximately 64% users.
In an attempt to replace Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s Edge came out in 2015 with the initial release of Windows 10. However, Microsoft could not keep its new browser to be compatible with enough websites. Hence, it did not attract as many users as they expected.
To regain its position, Microsoft had made a significant advancement by rebuilding its Edge browser in hope to uphold its competitiveness. This major improvement means Edge will be running on an open-source engine, Chromium, which is powered by Blink and the V8 JavaScript engines. It is also the same rendering engine for its rival, Google.
Edge of Frustration
Compatibility issue was one of the main reason behind this big shift.
Edge was not available for Mac users previously, hence, without having dual-booting Windows on a Mac, it was very difficult to test Microsoft’s web rendering engine. This was a big problem because many web developers use Mac to develop and test sites. Furthermore, Edge was also not available on Windows older than Windows 10.
Due to having little developers including Windows’ browsers as their standard testing routines. The lack of testing resulted in many web compatibility issues and user frustration. Where Edge was not compatible with most sites powered by Chromium.
Developers were not worried about assuring their websites to work properly with Windows’ internet browsers. Instead, if a site does not work properly on Windows’ default browser, users could simply switch over to another browser, which is most likely Chrome.
Improvements
Besides solving its compatibility issues, the two main big improvements of shifting Edge to Chromium were productivity and privacy.
Productivity
- Switching from Chrome to Edge can be done seamlessly. Edge supports Chrome-based extensions and fast migrate users’ passwords, favourite and other settings.
- New Internet Explorer mode for better compatibility with older sites and apps.
- AAD support
- 4K streaming
- Dolby audio
- inking in PDF
- Microsoft Search in Bing integration
- Touch performance
- Accessibility features
- support for ARM-based versions of Windows.
- Available on both iOS and Android
- MacOS and Windows 7 to 8.1
- Customisable browser to enhance your online experience. Such as customise a new tab page design and have the types of news you want it to feed.
- Business features such as Annotate PDFs in Edge, query a corporate intranet from the search experience, and more.
Privacy
Edge has hugely improved their browser privacy capabilities. This was done by trying to blacklist known sites that track you online. This anti-tracking technology has been widely used by browsers such as Apple’s Safari, Firefox and Brave.
Fonseka Innovations
With all the improvements Microsoft Edge has to offer, give it a try and see if it suits your taste. It is available to download on all supported versions of Windows and macOS in more than 90 languages. If you are a heavy mobile phone user, it is also available in Andriod and iOS.
A suggestion for the IT administrators. An offline deployment package will need to be downloaded to pilot within your corporate environment. As the new Microsoft Edge will not automatically deploy for commercial customers.
At Fonseka, we are always keeping ourselves updated to ensure delivering quality and compatibility products for you. If you have any questions feel free to contact us.