If you are one of those unlucky early internet users, you would remember how painful those days were; like our basic computer, the browser used to take forever to load, but nothing could diminish our excitement for the latest innovation i.e. the internet. Around that time Internet Explorer was the best we had. In fact, it enjoyed more than 90% of the market share in 2003 when Microsoft bundled its browser with the Windows operating system for free.
However, things began to go downhill for the Internet Explorer in 2004 when security and speed issues continued to arise in the browser and Microsoft took awfully long to update it. Whereas, Chrome, Firefox, and other better competitive rivals began to roll out with speedy updates and bugs fixes.
Security issues surrounding the Internet Explorer gained it indelible notoriety that is alive till today. Microsoft even considered changing its browser’s name that had so much stigma associated with it. Instead, when the Explorer turned 20 in 2015, it was sent into retirement while Microsoft attempted to revamp its browsing experience with Microsoft Edge. However, things did not take off as expected with the younger and livelier web browser.
Was Edge Microsoft’s Unfavorable Child?
It seemed like the tech giant didn’t care enough about browsing experience and had left the job to Chrome, Firefox, or Safari, meanwhile, Microsoft Edge was just there to cover the embarrassment of its past. However, that was not a great way to cover the said embarrassment since it came with kinks of its own. After 4 years of its birth, it has only managed to gather around 5 percent of market share while its parent i.e. Internet Explorer still managed to have a better share even in 2019, though things are on much equal footing now than they were a couple of years back (See Statista).
Why Edge didn’t take off?
Why would anyone switch from Chrome’s or Firefox’s stellar browser experience to a browser that lacked even basic usage features like full-screen mode, pin websites to taskbar, and several others that even Internet Explorer 11 offered. That’s probably why Explorer remained more popular than Edge for several years.
The Edge offered only 71 extensions in its infancy, whereas Chrome alone was boasting 8,500 extensions a year after it had gone live. Its mobile app did not even have browser syncing capabilities across devices, which was quite inconvenient for users.
Apart from that, to users Edge felt like an ex’s child, who they absolutely hated; therefore, it was hard for them to summon any positive feelings for it. Particularly, when it was designated to be Windows default browser and its logo was eerily similar to its parent, leading many to believe that it was the same program.
How Microsoft Turned Around Edge?
Microsoft has been steady, albeit slowly, working towards improving its browser experience. Since its advent, Edge has had several features that set it apart. Its integration with Microsoft’s virtual assistant Cortana was a plus point. Microsoft has been emphasizing Cortana’s integration in businesses for the past several years and if you want a particularly stellar business experience, go with Windstream business for amazing internet connectivity. Along with Cortana, Edge was able to support ebooks, it had a Reading View feature that had great utility, even came with special touchscreen shortcuts for a tablet mode view, and had a page annotation that made Edge unique.
The basic features that were missing steadily begun to roll out with every Windows OS, fixing its most crucial issues.
In 2018, Microsoft announced rebuilding Edge browser with Chromium, an open-source browser developed by Google, but it will be compounded with Microsoft’s own enhancements. Previously, the browser was built with Microsoft’s own EdgeHTML and Chakra Engine. The chromium-based Edge browser was released in beta version a year ago. Since then Microsoft has been steadily tweaking and rolling out changes to make it better. The newer version will be compatible with Windows 10, 8, 7, and macOS.
The most important change that came in late, but was immensely welcomed was when Microsoft recently rebranded the Edge browser and gave it a completely new logo. Microsoft hopes to roll out changes along with its chromium-based Edge browser release on the 15th of January 2020. The logo design mimics a wave rather than an ‘e’, which was notoriously associated with the Explorer.
In a tweet, Tom Warren, Verge’s Senior Editor, called it one of the significant changes to its logo in the company browser’s 20 years history.
Along with the logo unveiling and new version of Edge, Microsoft has promised to keep updating its browser with greater frequency to ensure a better browsing experience than ever delivered before by Microsoft.
