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What is Microsoft Edge?
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You may have heard the words Microsoft Edge but are still wondering what it is. Guess no longer. It is the new replacement for the Internet Explorer browser. Most of us are very happy to see IE (short for Internet Explorer) go away. As web programmers, we spent countless hours making websites work well on IE while other browsers had no issues displaying great websites using up-to-date coding techniques. When Microsoft announced in January of 2015 the release of their new browser, it made sense why they made little effort fixing on-going issues with Internet Explorer the past few years.

Right now Microsoft Edge is only available for Windows 10. That means any new computers purchased from now one with Windows 10 or any computers upgrading to Windows 10 will use Microsoft Edge as their “default browser” instead of Internet Explorer. Just like before, users will be able to download other browsers like Firefox/Mozilla, Chrome, Safari, etc.

Some Microsoft clients such as their enterprise customers may continue to use Internet Explorer though, at some point, it will just disappear. I can only imagine the conversation in our office two years from now : “Do you remember that horrible Internet browser that used to cause us so many problems? What was its name again?”

Anyone with a recent version of Windows operating system can upgrade to Microsoft Edge at no charge by going directly to Microsoft’ s website. For those who have done the upgrade (note it takes 1 to 2 hours) the consensus is still undefined on the pros and cos of this new browser. This is what we know so far:

  • It is based on the same engine as Windows 10 which shares lots of similarities with Windows 7. Humm … what happened to Windows 8? We guess sometimes stepping back is part of moving forward.
  • It enables users to write notes directly on a page and share it with others. Okay … that’s pretty cool. The only issue is after you make your notes (add text, highlight etc.) you can only save and send to OneNote (a MS program of course). It would be lovely to be able to share it on social media or send it to an email without having to go first to OneNote.
  • It has the ability to tag textual content to a reading list that can be saved for future read. Okay … that’s pretty cool too.
  • It offers a reading view in their URL address bar which  hides away side bars and nav bars and only shows the reading material. It also automatically picks and choose which image should show if any. It seems to “prefer” images that do not link anywhere. Humm … online advertisers are not going to be too happy about that. For instance, it is not clear how Microsoft Edge decides which text is the reading material and if a coder can overwrite it with code. Imagine if your website provides free content and relied on advertising to survive, hiding away ads could be bad for business. Also some ads pay based on the number of views so the questions are “How does it work if the user can hide the ad from their screen? Does it count as 1 view, 0 view, multiple views when hiding and showing?”
  • On the other side of the coin, the reading view is quite nice for the user.  I would not be surprise if other browsers will start offering that function on the next upgrade. As of now, there is no way to control with coding what Microsoft Edge Reading View shows or does not show. It is a matter of time before some programmers in a dark room figures it out so stay tune.
  • It supposedly searches for keywords and phrases faster. MS does not specify if this is faster than other browsers or faster than their prior under performing browser. Humm … that remains to be seen. Saying the operating system Windows 10 does seem to work faster than prior versions so perhaps this is what they are referring to.
Microsoft Edge
Pros and Cos of Microsoft Edge

As you can see, we need more time to assess this brand new browser. As before with Microsoft products, some people are going to love it and others are going to hate it. We expect the sentiments to be very strong on either side as it affects how one searches the web which has become part of our daily life and routine.

So far our personal experience in our team has been favorable and we are still pocking around this new browser.

We will keep you posted!

Questions about this subject?


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