Microsoft’s Edge browser is supposed to be Redmond’s last attempt to keep Windows’ users within Microsoft’s home browser. Sorry to say, but Edge isn’t ready for primetime.
After using Windows 10 for several days, my experiences with Edge have been less than spectacular. Although I appreciate its responsiveness and snappy behavior, these features are not enough to keep me using it as a daily browser.
Yes, a major part of the problem is that Edge doesn’t have any extension support, which they’ll add sometime this autumn. But it’s more than that, which makes me question why Microsoft launched what feels like a feature incomplete beta to the public.
First of all, changing search defaults on it is a pain in the ass. They buried the search option in Edge’s advanced settings. But before this, you first have to visit your search site of choice in order for it to populate the selection window. Coming to the search option beforehand yields a blank screen that will make you think you did something wrong.
Not only that, but for some reason, they removed the handy ability to change the search defaults on the fly. In Internet Explorer, any search defaults you added saved themselves underneath the address bar. Microsoft removed this feature in Edge, meaning anytime you want to change your search default, you have to open settings, click advanced settings, and fiddle with the search defaults in the menu all over again. Unacceptable.
The search woes are a major issue, but another major issue is some web pages render improperly with Edge. Little things like not being able to sign in properly on a website, to having a webpage’s formatting or graphics break or distort happened more frequently than I imagined they would. While none of these web glitches were deal breakers, they ruined the immersive web experience.
The problem is I can’t tell if it’s because Edge isn’t as standards compliant as Microsoft claims, or if it’s web designers and programmers being lazy and designing websites with rendering engines like WebKit in mind. I ran a quick test on HTML5test.com, and as of writing, Edge ranked at 402 points. For comparison sakes, Chrome 44 is at 526, Opera 31 is at 525, Firefox 41 is at 462, and Safari 9 is at 400. Although HTML5test isn’t a definitive way of troubleshooting whether a browser is standards compliant or not, it gives a good sign of how much effort their developers made to keep it modern and feature rich.
Extension support will make Edge a much more usable browser, but the other concerns are as important, if not more important. It’s no secret that Internet Explorer became a punchline in both the tech and non-tech world. And the truth is it wasn’t a bad browser… after they released Internet Explorer 10.
Internet Explorer has been losing market share worldwide. The only countries where it still commands a strong presence, South Korea and Japan, are like that because they have laws making banks and government agencies use Internet Explorer as a default, due to special tools they built for security reasons.
Edge is supposed to break away from Internet Explorer’s tainted legacy. But Microsoft could jeopardize Edge’s introduction with its shortcomings, combined with the fact that it is set as the default browser upon installation. First impressions are crucial, and Edge falls flat.
And this doesn’t mean that Edge is a terrible browser. From my time using it, I’ve enjoyed its snappy performance. And although I haven’t had a practical use for the annotation tools, I see the potential in being able to markup a website and send it to someone on the fly.
Microsoft, you’re up at bat, and your first swing was a miss. Two more strikes, and you’re going to be sitting on the benches, watching Chrome and Firefox continue to hit homeruns. Hopefully the autumn patch will bring some exciting new changes to Edge.
Sid Jay Is AOK 
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