Microsoft Edge on Chromium: What Does It Mean?

SEATTLE—As a fan of Microsoft's Edge web browser, I had a lot of questions about the company's move to Google's Chromium underlying web-rendering code. I understand it was an uphill battle trying to maintain compatibility with a web that's largely build with Chrome as the target. But the idea of the non-vendor-specific, interoperable, standards-bases web seems to have died with the move; Firefox is now the last holdout among independent browser engines.

Will Edge with Chromium guts include all the features we've come to know and love in the current Edge, like Reading mode, Cortana integration, Set tabs aside, and more? As the project's gatekeepers, will Google deny some features Microsoft tries to contribute to the open-source Chromium project? Why not just use Chrome if Edge is Chrome underneath?

At a Build 2019 session titled State of the Browser, Chuck Friedman, Corporate VP of Edge, Olya Veselova, Principal Program Manager Lead, and Coleen Williams, Senior Program Manager, addressed many of my concerns.

Why move from Microsoft's own EdgeHTML rendering subsystem? Freidman described it as wanting to be free from the "chase state." The team was chasing compatibility issues that popped up because most websites target Chrome. With the move to Chromium, the development team could stop chasing and start contributing new web capabilities. That possibility lifted the team's spirits, Freidman said. Since making the move, the team has had over 400 of its contributions, or pull requests, accepted into Chromium.

Another reason for the move, according to Friedman, was the ability to build a browser cross-platform, meaning not just for Windows, but for iOS, Android, and even Apple Macs. Web developers who use Macs were a specific driver for this: With Edge on the Mac, those developers wouldn't need to switch boxes to see how their sites rendered on the Windows default browser.

The team has been working on implementing features that would differentiate Edge from other browsers, giving them a reason to switch. So Freidman's team asked four groups of users—developers, consumers (nontechnical and the technically savvy), enterprise users, and education users—to outline their pain points and provide a browser wish list.

Edge vs. Other Chromium-Based Browsers

The key differentiators between the new Edge and other Chromium-based browsers are Collections, Internet Explorer mode (enterprise Windows installations only), a customizable and useful start page experience, and clear and transparent privacy controls. Edge was also the only browser to attain 100 percent of the HTML5 Accessibility benchmark and will include education-focused features like Reading View, word highlighting, and Read Aloud.

The browser's start page offers a few layout options: Informational shows your news and other content, which you can personalize to taste. The Focused layout just shows a search bar and your site tiles. The Inspirational layout shows a beautiful Bing-style photo along with your links and search. A custom option lets you turn these features on and off to taste. You can use different layouts for different user profiles; make one for personal and one for work, for example.

Collections

Collections was demonstrated multiple times during Build 2019 keynotes, and I can see why. It sounds like an old idea: gather web content from different sites into one place to help with research or planning. But the new Edge's implementation nails it.

The current version of Edge features the promising Set Aside Tabs to fill similar needs. But I expect the feature wasn't heavily used. I started using it when it first came out, but then forget about it.

Collections is more surfaced, with a button to the right of the address bar. And adding to it is easy and smartly handled. You can add a whole webpage, a picture, or text. You can also add notes to anything in the sidebar, and reorder the items to taste. Output is another way the feature shines: you can share a Collection not only to email, but create an Excel spreadsheet or Word document from it, complete with links back to the web content.

Edge on the Mac

Those old enough may remember that Internet Explorer was the first browser available for the Mac. Those days are long gone, with no IE on the Mac for decades. The Mac version uses Mac fonts, keyboard shortcuts, and even supports the Macbook Touch Bar for video scrubbing and site icons for open tabs.

One thing you won't get on the Mac is Internet Explorer mode, since the underlying code for that only runs on Windows.

What's Not There Yet

There's no Cortana sidebar for web info when you highlight text and right-click, though there is a standard search for selected text. The browser doesn't yet support dark theme, spell check, international language support, smooth scrolling, share button, PDF features, and Reading List. Chromium Edge activity doesn't appear in Timeline yet, either, which is something I'd expect Microsoft to prioritize.

The New Edge

For a large number of users, the only noticeable difference in Edge will be that it displays sites more compatibly. Microsoft essentially subscribed to the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" philosophy, and it seems like a decision that will pay of for the company, for the users, and for the web.

You can try downloading the pre-release installer from the Microsoft Edge Insider site. There are three options, depending on your tolerance for risk: the most stable is Beta, updated every six weeks; Dev, is updated weekly; and Canary is updated daily for the latest though least hardened features.

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