Microsoft Releases New Edge Browser to Compete with Google

Microsoft released its new Edge browser on April 8, 2019, hoping to finally make a dent in the hold that Google Chrome has had over the browser market. This is not the first time Microsoft has tried to be more competitive against Google. Approximately three years ago, Google released an updated Edge browser. However, despite having made significant investments, Microsoft failed to have the browser measure up against Google Chrome. At the end of 2018, Microsoft announced that it would employ a different tactic and use Chromium’s Blink rendering engine to rebuild the Edge Browser.

Open-Source Engine May Produce a Better Outcome

Chromium is a Google open-source web browser that has proven to be a favorite of developers. Chromium powers several third-party browsers, including Samsung Internet, Vivaldi, Brave, and Opera. Microsoft has actually been collaborating with Google to increase Chromium’s reach and has been using the Chromium engine to power its Edge browser on iOS and Android devices.

Testing and More Testing

Consumers should not get too excited yet, as it will take some time for the test versions to be reviewed and tweaked. In fact, it is not even in the beta stage. Two test versions of the rebuilt browser are accessible only to developers. The prototypes, called Developer and Canary, can be downloaded from the Edge insider website.

What is the difference between Canary and Developer? Canary, as its name would suggest, is a real-time channel. At the end of each day of work, developers will release it to Canary. Microsoft will test new features and fix bugs on the Canary channel. For developers, it means they can test out the version, hot off the press, as long as they don’t mind navigating through the bugs.

The Developer channel will also be fresh, but not real-time like Canary. The bugs identified on Canary will be fixed, user feedback will be analyzed and incorporated, and then it will go to the Developer channel. Developers can use this version of Microsoft Edge if they would like a smoother experience.