The adoption of the new Microsoft Edge browser keeps improving as more users consider the Chromium-based version a worthy alternative to the likes of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
The software giant launched Edge in 2015 on Windows 10 and Xbox One.Two years on, in 2017, Edge rolled out on Android and iOS, leading to its first phase of adoption. The browser reached MacOS in. The new Edge is a very good browser. It's like Chrome -only better. But Microsoft has managed to annoy Windows 10 users by making Edge very difficult to ignore. Microsoft is no stranger to the benefits of platform domination, and it has tried to turn that to its advantage when it comes to Edge. But Google has the world’s most popular browser—its. Microsoft hasn't committed to copying Chrome's release calendar — Edge 79, which debuted this week, arrived five weeks after Chrome 79, for example — but it most likely will come close.
But according to new data provided by NetMarketShare for the month of February, it looks like Firefox is the one that’s the most affected by the arrival of the new Edge, as its market share fell substantially in the last few weeks.
In other words, Microsoft Edge is now very close to becoming the world’s second most-used desktop browser, with Firefox likely to drop to third place as soon as the next month.
In February, Google Chrome improved its market share from 66.93% to 67.27%, which is a little unexpected given the launch of the new Microsoft Edge browser. However, these stats reveal a significant drop for Firefox, which went down from 8.12% to 7.57%.
Microsoft Edge, on the other hand, increased its market share from 7.02% to 7.39%, and if the same trends are maintained, there’s a good chance it overtakes Firefox as soon as this month.
The Chromium push
The continuously-increasing adoption of the new Edge isn’t necessarily surprising.
The Chromium-powered browser not only that is offered as the new default on Windows 10, replacing the legacy sibling, but it’s also available on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and macOS. The Chromium engine allows it to become a cross-platform browser, and Microsoft is also working on a Linux version whose debut should take place sometime in the near future.
There’s no doubt its adoption will be further improvement in the coming months as more people decide to give it a try, but by the looks of things, overtaking Google Chrome is something that won’t just happen overnight. Chrome is still a tough nut to crack, and it’ll probably take years before Edge manages to get closer in terms of market share.
Microsoft Edge is dead, long live Microsoft Edge. Although the old Edge long failed to make it on to anybody’s list of best browsers, Microsoft has completely revamped its web browser by basing it on Chromium, which has improved its performance, created a more pleasant user experience and opened the door to Chrome’s library of extensions.
Microsoft’s history with web browsers is a turbulent one, to say the least. Although its original browser — Internet Explorer — was once dominant, it lost its crown to Google Chrome in the mid-2000s (read our Microsoft Edge vs Chrome piece). It isn’t without some irony, then, that Microsoft has decided to pin its hopes on the Chromium framework to revive interest in its struggling browser. The biggest benefit that the new Edge browser gets from moving to the Chromium framework (read our Chromium review) is that it is now compatible with Chrome’s vast library of extensions. Although Microsoft also operates its own store for dedicated Edge add-ons, it’s dwarfed by the Chrome web store, which contains tens of thousands of extensions.
Although not all extensions will work with Edge, most will, with the exception being ones that directly modify the user interface. This means that invaluable web apps — such as password manager extensions, ad blockers and security extensions — are all available for the browser, greatly expanding its list of potential new features. Edge also comes with a sync feature that’s similar to that of Chrome. Currently, you can sync your favorites, settings, form content and passwords using your Microsoft account. Although it hasn’t been implemented yet, Microsoft also plans to add history, currently open tabs, extensions and collections to this list of syncable items.
Another similarity to Chrome is the context menu options. You can select and right-click any text — and more importantly, images — and choose “search the web for” to instantly do a text or reverse image search in your chosen search engine. By default this is Bing, but you can change it to Google, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo. Like most browsers, Edge has a reading mode — called “immersive reader” — that strips out everything except the text on a webpage to make it easier to read. There’s also a “read aloud” feature that takes highlighted text and, you guessed it, reads it out loud. This works quite well for English text, but not so much for any other language (reminding us a bit of speech-to-text software).
The new Edge browser features a slick and easy-to-use design that will no doubt be familiar to anyone who has used Chrome or other Chromium-derived web browsers. When you first install Edge, you’re taken through an introduction that helps you set up the browser. First, you can import bookmarks from Chrome or Internet Explorer, but if you wish to import from any other browsers, you’ll need to first export your bookmarks to an HTML file and import from there. Check out our guide on how to backup Firefox bookmarks for an example of how to do this.
World's Edge Microsoft Download
Next, you’re prompted to set up the sync process, as well as choose a “tab style” that suits you. This “tab style” is basically what you’ll see when you open a new tab. You can choose between “focused,” “inspirational,” “informational” and “custom.” There’s not a huge amount of difference between these, as it basically boils down to whether or not you want a personalized news feed on your homepage, as well as enabling or disabling the “image of the day” as your Microsoft wallpaper. You can choose a country for the news feed, which will then show you the day’s headlines relevant to your location.
World's Edge Microsoft Office
Besides the new tab page, there’s not a whole lot of customization available. You can switch between a light and dark theme, as well as download and install additional fonts, but both of these are features commonly included in most web browsers these days.