“We’re just making the web better,” it says

Dec 7, 2018 12:52 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft today announced another major change in the browser market, as it plans to migrate to the Chromium engine for the default Windows 10 browser.

The news certainly doesn’t come as a big surprise, especially after all the rumors that have been pointing to a potential transition from EdgeHTML to Chromium in a future Windows 10 update.

And for many users, Microsoft building its own Chrome browser makes sense, especially when considering the lack of features that are plaguing Microsoft Edge today.

But while it’s pretty clear that Microsoft has failed for the second time in the browser market, the company certainly doesn’t want the whole thing to look this way.

Its own official announcement that reveals plans for a Chromium browser doesn’t say anything about the poor adoption of Microsoft Edge or the plethora of issues that users have been encountering but instead tries to play down all of these and share a different message.

By moving to Chrome, Microsoft is improving browsing not only for its users but also for the rest of Internet users, as it will “become a significant contributor to the Chromium project.” That’s what Joe Belfiore, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, says in a long post that lacks the most important details.

First of all, there’s absolutely no word about the EdgeHTML engine or why Microsoft has decided to give up on it.

“Our goal is to do this in a way that embraces the well-established open source model that’s been working effectively for years: meaningful and positive contributions that align to long-standing, thoughtfully designed architecture, and collaborative engineering. Together we seek the best outcome for all people who use the web across many devices,” Belfiore says.

So yes, there’s nothing wrong with Edge, but the change is needed because Microsoft wants “the best outcome” for all users, not just its own. For what it’s worth, check out this article on why Microsoft Edge has to go and you’ll understand what is actually wrong with Edge.

As Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, says, by switching to Chromium, Microsoft actually makes Google more powerful. This means that no, Microsoft doesn’t specifically want to make the web a better place, but the company simply has no other option than to embrace Google’s browser engine. If this helps improve the world of web browsing, that’s great for a variety of purposes, including marketing, but otherwise, it provides users with fewer options overall.

“The interests of Microsoft’s shareholders may well be served by giving up on the freedom and choice that the internet once offered us,” Mozilla says. “By adopting Chromium, Microsoft hands over control of even more of online life to Google.”

Microsoft, however, promotes a different message. “Making the web better on Windows is good for our customers, partners and our business – and we intend to actively contribute to that end,” Belfiore says.

Again, it’s all about making the web a better place.

“Ultimately, we want to make the web experience better for many different audiences,” Belfiore continues.

Still no word on the failure that Microsoft Edge turned out to be. If you look at data provided by market analysis firm NetMarketShare, you’re going to see a completely different picture.

Microsoft Edge has a market share of a little over 4 percent, while Google Chrome is the leading choice with more than 65 percent. This means most of the Windows 10 users actually switch to Google Chrome, and if you wonder why, it’s simply because Microsoft Edge isn’t delivering the performance was supposed to deliver. It lacks extensions, it’s slow, and it occasionally crashes for no clear reason.

While Microsoft doesn’t want to admit publicly that it failed to build a capable browser for the second time, this is what happened.

Microsoft Edge, originally called Project Spartan, was quite a short-lived warrior, that’s for sure.