The Edge

image from hongkiat

Microsoft Edge is... not perfect. It's good, don't get me wrong. It's nowhere as bad as most people say or would think it is. But given its competition, and everyone's main rival, Chrome, Edge has had quite a battle to fight, even still with the upcoming switch to Chromium.

Having debuted in 2015, Edge pretty much started with an uphill battle. It's predecessor, Internet Explorer left a bad taste in most techies' mouths over the years, becoming the butt of memes and jokes about being slow and having its sole purpose being to inevitably download Chrome.  But Edge is NOT IE. And, while I'm at it, I'll defend Internet Explorer just a bit.
Let's be fair, a clean, not weighed down by a million toolbars IE actually works well enough to get some work done. Edge, is not an amplification of that sentiment, however. Edge is a new direction; the right direction, more or less. With its host of amazing features and tricks, Microsoft Edge is, well... Amazing. The beautiful UI and handy shortcuts and tabs Edge provide are effective. Like all things Microsoft, it's geared for productivity. Edge is a browser focused on getting work done, whether it's jotting down ideas with Web Note or the easy arrangements of your Reading List. It gets the job done so well that I'm sometimes surprised Google never thought of some of these features with Chrome.

Yes, yes, some of these features are basically able to be done with any browser using personalised folders and bookmarks, but even the most popular browser in the world, Google Chrome, doesn't make internet organisation as simple as Edge does. But, I suppose it's not all sunshine here. In the end, Edge seems to be burdened by the same curse that haunted Internet Explorer - at least, sometimes. It can get really bad; the application can come to a slow crawl at times. I've especially found this to be true in use with Google related sites. More on that later.
But really, I don't quite get it. Despite being more compliant with current standards, Edge is incapable of displaying certain features that other browsers do in a heartbeat. Take this example; the Apple website is decorated with eye-catching animations - something Chrome can shell out without even thinking. Edge? Edge gets the mobile treatment; Still photos and a not so dynamic experience of magic that you'd expect of the Apple website. Granted, Microsoft Edge isn't completely up to standard with HTML5 (score of 492/555... Kamen Rider anyone?), but it has come a long way. There is much frustration when your browser suddenly freezes up when all you're trying to do is watch cute idol videos, as is the case with YouTube or, practically any site run by Google.

Try this; Open Edge and go to YouTube music - here, I'll even provide the link for you. Play around the website a bit, run a few songs and have an observation at the performance. Try the same with YouTube, or even try Google Photos, Gmail. Quite often, I've had a terrible experience. This is especially true for YouTube and YouTube Music. I've had YouTube give me error reports and downright refuse to load pages on Edge. Frozen tabs, nonexistent comment sections - just a technological Hades. But to my surprise at the time, when diving into this mess, it turns out that none of that is Edge's, nor Microsoft's fault. Due to YouTube running an older Polymer Kit, Edge, and even Firefox, run the website like absolute rubbish. Chrome, on the other hand, is compatible with the kit and makes the most out of it, resulting in a rapid experience. I am not going to go into the ethics of this as that is another can of worms; what Google is doing or not doing to maintain its presence and authority... That's for another occasion. But what I will say is that Google's activities have caused a lot to theorise that it has deliberately done so to gain a better hand over its competitors. This is YouTube we're talking about here - one of the most visited websites on the entire internet. Having users change browsers to enjoy a better experience... no, forget it. We're not going down into that rabbit hole. Not today anyway.

Conspiracies aside, Edge still has a lot of work to do. Its performance can go from blazing fast to "Where am I and what am I doing?" really quickly sometimes. It's true. It's something that just happens sometimes. Is it annoying? Why, yes. It's downright infuriating, but it isn't a common occurrence, almost like with any other browser. Edge is a good browser. Heck, Edge is a fantastic browser; one with great tools, features, and UI. Underrated, misunderstood, and sometimes downright mistreated. It is NOT Internet Explorer by any means and it is not, or rather, should not be for just downloading Chrome.

chromium edge dev logo

And that's why it actually saddens me a little that Microsoft has chosen to opt-out of EdgeHMTL for Chromium - joining... because they just can't anymore. Basically a convert or die phenomenon - to go on as Edge and be forever ignored despite being a proper application or survive as "Edgeium" (thanks Linus), less honour, but hopefully... more users.
Still, in the end, it may just be wishful thinking, as Microsoft meets obstacle after obstacle in trying to prepare a new, stable experience for users. Another uphill battle to overcome yet again.