Microsoft is rebuilding its Edge browser using the same Chromium foundation blocks that sit underneath Chrome, and thanks to this week’s Build 2019 conference, we now know a lot more about what the revamped browser has to offer. Here are the details you need to know and why you might eventually end up switching to Edge.
Microsoft is rebuilding its Edge browser using the same Chromium foundation blocks that sit underneath Chrome, and thanks to this week’s Build 2019 conference, we now know a lot more about what the revamped browser has to offer. Here are the details you need to know and why you might eventually end up switching to Edge.
For the uninitiated, the switch to Chromium and its Blink browser engine makes sense for the new Microsoft Edge for several reasons. As we’ve explained in more detail elsewhere, browser engines handle the nuts and bolts of converting website code into actual websites, and Chrome, Safari, and Firefox all use different engines. Ditching the EdgeHTML engine and switching to Blink means web developers don’t need to worry about getting sites working in Chrome and Edge, which in turn means Edge will just work. It also means the new Edge is compatible with more computers and devices—like those running macOS or older versions of Windows.
As a bonus, it gives Edge 2.0 (as Microsoft isn’t calling it) access to Chrome’s vast extension library. The most popular browser is usually where the innovation is happening and where the future of the web is shaped, and using Blink inside Edge gives Microsoft a seat at that table. Some of the features introduced in Edge might well end up making their way to Chrome, eventually.
So besides the underlying engine, what else is different about the new Microsoft Edge? And why would you pick it over Google Chrome? We’ve listed them below, and if you want to test out a developer version of the new browser for Windows 10, it can download it here.
The open source web browser project Chromium is not the same as the Google Chrome software built on top of it—though Google engineers work on both. Developers building on Chromium, like Microsoft, have the freedom to adapt it to their own needs and keep out some of the extras Google puts in.
