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Microsoft Edge Chromium: a worthy alternative browser?
Posted May 28, 2020
By Emily Macios
There's a new browser in town...meet Microsoft's new Edge Chromium browser. Unlike previous Microsoft browsers (*cough* Internet Explorer *cough*), this one is actually worth checking out. Built on the open-source browser project Chromium, same as Google's Chrome browser, the new Microsoft Edge browser is incredibly fast and lightweight. A far cry from the old Edge and Internet Explorer days.
Some cool new features include:
- A new Apps feature will allow you to install websites as native apps. This can be useful for services that don't have standalone apps, such as Gmail. Once you install the Gmail website as an app, it will show in the Start menu and run as a standalone app.
- A built-in dark mode will allow you to browse in dark mode
- A new Read Aloud feature will read a webpage out loud by simply right-clicking on the page and selecting 'Read aloud'
- A new tracking prevention feature will let you adjust levels for different privacy modes
- A coming soon "Collections" feature, integrated with Office365, will let you group links, images, pages, etc. into a collection as somewhat of an "enhanced bookmark." You'll also be able to import these collections into Excel and Word.
I've been using it for a few days now, and so far the performance has been outstanding. The user interface, quite similar to Google Chrome, is very intuitive and easy to use. It's also very snappy, even with multiple tabs opened, and is much less of a RAM hog than Google Chrome. I would already consider it a viable alternative to Firefox and Chrome.
The new browser is available for Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, macOS, Android, and iOS.
Download the new Edge browser here.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4501095/download-the-new-microsoft-edge-based-on-chromium
During installation, all of your current Edge settings, including passwords, favorites, etc. will automatically be imported into the new Edge browser. Or you will also have the option to import your settings from Chrome, Firefox, or whatever your default browser is. Microsoft has made it very easy and user friendly to make the switch to its new (and greatly improved!) browser.