MICROSOFT EDGE: Ah, internet explorer,
the browser you use to download other browsers. Or at least, that’s what it used to be until
Microsoft finally decided to retire Internet Explorer in mid 2022. Don’t worry though,
Microsoft has a replacement for Internet Explorer called Edge, and it’s able to
download Google Chrome even faster. In fact, it’s able to download it even faster the Chrome
would be able to download it given that it’s objectively faster. According to Microsoft,
Edge is 112% faster than Chrome, but who knows what cherry picked data they’re using. Something
that is surprising though is the Edge is actually faster in real world testing as well. This is
what many blogs have beeng claiming for quite some time now, and through my personal testing,
it does appear to be true. On BrowserBench, I was able to get a score of 270 using Edge,
while I only got a score 251 using Chrome. This wasn’t just a fluke either. Test after test,
Edge consistently scored about 20 points better than chrome. Edge is not just snappier than
chrome either, it’s also more efficient. With 60 tabs open, Chrome used up 3.7 GB of memory
while Edge only used up 2.9 GB. This will be quite noticeable for all you who regularly
have dozens of tabs open. I know you’re watching. Alright, so Edge might be marginally faster and
more efficient than the other browsers, but speed isn’t the only factor when it comes to
choosing a browser. There’s several other factors that you might consider such as which one is more
socially acceptable. I’m just kidding, of course you don’t do that, but what you might consider
is the default search engine. Now technically, the default search engine on Edge is Bing. But,
Microsoft isn’t hell bent on getting you to actually use Bing. In fact, you can switch
to Google within literally 10 seconds. But, what about the hundreds of thousands of extensions that
are available on the chrome web store. Surely, Microsoft can’t compete with that right? Well,
they don’t have to because they simply let you use the chrome web store. The new version of Edge
is based on Chromium meaning that you can add any Chrome extension to Edge. You can also add
Microsoft extensions to Edge as well, not that Microsoft’s catalog is anything to brag about,
but you do have that as well which simply gives you even more options. On top of all this,
Edge also has awesome integration with Microsoft Office and and Outlook for obvious reasons. Edge
also comes with a lot of quirks that many people really like such as the ability to arrange your
tabs vertically and the sidebar on the side of the screen. So, really, you get the best of both
the Google world and the Microsoft world. This is really not that surprising given that Edge is
really just a faster implementation of Chrome with some Microsoft aspects thrown in here and there.
But, despite this, Edge is getting destroyed when it comes to market share. Chrome’s market
share stands at a dominating 60% while Edge’s market share isn’t even able to cross 5%. So,
why does no one want Edge despite it being equivalent to chrome if not better.
INTERNET EXPLORER:
One of the main reasons that people avoid Edge like the plague is because of Internet Explorer.
At one point in history, Internet Explorer was actaully the most popular browser on the planet,
but not because it was good but because it was forced. You see, before Internet Explorer, people
were perfectly happy using the WorldWideWeb, Lynx, and of course Netscape. But, in 1995,
Microsoft decided that they wanted a piece of the internet pie as well, so they came out with
Internet Explorer. And knowing Microsoft, they didn’t want to leave the adoption of Internet
Explorer up to chance. So, they bundled Internet Explorer in with Windows. And just as they hoped,
new PC users tended to use the default browser, Internet Explorer, and this led to the browser
becoming the dominant browser. But Microsoft had gotten one thing wrong. Just because Internet
Explorer was the most popular didn’t mean that it was actually popular amongst people. At best,
people had a neutral opinion on the browser while enthusiasts hated it. This wasn’t to
say that Internet Explorer was terrible. It got the job done fine, but at the same time,
it wasn’t anything notable either. What really triggered enthusiasts was the fact that Microsoft
forced Internet Explorer while there were several other great options. It wasn’t just enthusiasts
that were triggered either. Regulators were triggered as well. Microsoft was literally
blocking computer manufacturers from putting any other web browser on the desktop. And this
was after they agreed that they wouldn’t bundle Internet Explorer in with Windows. As you would
guess, regulators didn’t take this violation lightly, and this issue would be escalated up
to the supreme court. During the worst of it, Microsoft was actually being ordered to split
into two different companies. But, luckily for Microsoft, this order was cancelled at the last
second because the judge issuing the order had broken protocol by talking to the press. So,
ironically, it was the press that saved Microsoft at the Supreme Court, but they by no means helped
Microsoft in the public court. By the early 2000s, the general public was well aware of how Microsoft
had abused their power with IE and they resented Microsoft for it. For many, Microsoft was the
embodiment of everything that was wrong with a capitalistic society. So, they started leaving
in droves, and they started supporting an open source project: Mozilla Firefox. For many years,
FireFox was the go to browser not just for enthusiasts, but for everyone. By 2010,
FireFox had 33% market while IE had 50% market share. In fact, if Firefox had a few more years,
they would’ve overtaken IE and became the most popular browser in the world by far. But, Sundar
Pichai and Google had a different plan. They had seen quite a bit of success within the search and
email space, and now they wanted to challenge the likes of Microsoft and Apple with Google Chrome.
GOOGLE CHROME: While Firefox was giving Microsoft a run for their
money, they had by no means lost the game quite yet. All of the F Microsofters had already left,
so the people that were left were simply looking for a functional browser, and Internet Explorer
was more than capable of that. So, all Microsoft had to do was keep Internet Explorer functional,
but they couldn’t even do that. At first glance, this might be a bit surprising. Why was a multi
hundred billion dollar company not able to keep up with a browser? A literal opensource community was
able to do that. Well, the answer is not a lack of resources, the answer is hubris and arrogance. You
see, Microsoft had never played by the rules, they were the ones that set the rules. And everyone
else had to follow Microsoft’s rules whether they wanted to or not because Microsoft had the users.
Microsoft approached IE with the same attitude. They didn’t give a crap about global web standards
or developers or even putting out consistent updates. Microsoft was updating IE only once every
few years. While developers were willing to put up with this BS when IE had 80 to 90% market share,
they stopped catering to Microsoft’s needs as Firefox and Chrome starting making a name
for themselves. Unlike IE, Chrome was built for developers by developers. Google figured that to
get end users to switch, they first needed to get developers to switch and make websites that ran
great on their browser. Fortunately for Google, this wasn’t that hard to do given that Microsoft
was in hibernation. The results of this weren’t immediately clear, but about 5 years after the
launch of Chrome in the early to mid 2010s, the general public started to notice. More and more
websites started to look wonky on IE. People also started to notice that their friends who
used Chrome experienced less lag, fewer crashes, and simply had an overall smoother experience.
But IE’s problems stretched much further than just being slow and displaying websites
poorly. Do you remember how computer viruses were an actual concern 10 to 20 years ago? Well, one
of the main reasons for that is actually Internet Explorer. You see, Microsoft allowed developers to
write website code in the international standard which is Javascript or Visual Basic Script. The
reasoning for this was that VB Script could allow developers to accomplish more advanced tasks as
they would have greater access to the user’s PC. But, this also meant that it was way easier to
infect computers with viruses. Let’s just say that this security issue was so bad that Microsoft has
since put out tutorials on how to disable VBScript execution. So, not only was IE slower and wonky,
it was a serious security threat. I mean, it’s almost as if Microsoft was actively
encouraging people to leave IE. And that’s exactly what they did. Between 2009 and 2015,
IE’s marketshare would plummet from 65% down to 15%. Clearly, Microsoft’s hibernation strategy was
no longer working, and they would finally decide to do something with the launch of Microsoft Edge.
INTERNET EXPLORER V2:
Microsoft initially launched Edge alongside Windows 10 back in 2015, but while Edge had a
much more modern look than IE, not much had changed really changed. Behind the scenes,
Microsoft was making all of the same mistakes that they were making with IE. For example,
Edge was built on Microsoft’s proprietary browser engine, EdgeHTML and their Chakra
Javascript Engine. While these sounds fancy, the reality was that Edge still didn’t support even
basic open media standards such as WebM and Opus. So, Edge was really just the same crappy Internet
Explorer but with a face lift. We should also mention that Microsoft was still using their
classic monopolistic practices with Edge as it came with Windows 10 and now Windows 11 as well.
But, by this point, people had become numb to Microsoft’s games. Downloading a new browser using
Microsoft’s default browser became a natural part of buying a new computer. Nobody even bothered
checking out if Edge was actually good or not. In fact, Edge’s market share was a laughable 2%. But,
no worries, it’s not like any of these people missed out on anything because Edge still sucked.
This didn’t remain the case forever though as Satya Nadella, the new CEO, would eventually
come around to addressing Edge. Unlike his predecessors, Satya didn’t have the pompous
viewpoint that Microsoft was the only and best choice consumers had. Instead, he acknowledged
their shortcomings and embraced their competitors. For example, instead of endlessly pursuing the
Windows Phone, he chose to embrace iOS and Android by launching Microsoft Office on these platforms.
He would carry over this same mindset when it come to addressing the browser space. Instead
of trying to outshine Chrome by developing their own advanced browser from scratch,
he chose to embrace Chrome. He acknowledged that Chrome had won over the users and the developers,
so it was much smarter to build off of Chrome’s success and simply add a Windows spin to it. And
that’s exactly what happened. At the end of 2018, Microsoft announced that they would be
switching Edge to Chromium. And at beginning of 2020, Microsoft would launch the new Edge.
THE NEW EDGE:
Since then, Edge has simply become more and more integrated with Chrome but at the same
time it has also become more and more unique. For example, they embraced the chrome webstore,
but at the same time, they also addressed Chrome’s atrocious ram usage. Similarly,
they let you use Google as your default search engine, but at the same time, you have the full
power of Microsoft’s Office suite which let’s be honest is way better than Google’s offerings.
Microsoft Edge is no longer the lock into the Microsoft ecosystem that it once used to be. But,
despite all this, no one wants to switch primarily because of their negative opinion on IE and the
original Edge. With that being said though, we can’t expect these types of switches to happen
overnight. Enthusiasts are starting notice, and as Google becomes the one that’s hibernating,
we may just see a non monopolistic browser space. Would you be wiling to switch to
Edge? Comment that down below. Also, drop a like if you’re glad that Chrome may finally
see some competition. And of course, consider checking out our discord community to suggest
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