Google Chrome remains the browser of choice for me

Jul 18, 2018 11:56 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has put a lot of effort into making Microsoft Edge the preferred choice for Windows 10 users worldwide, but if we are to trust third-party figures, this strategy has pretty much failed.

Google Chrome is currently the leading browser on the desktop with a share of more than 60 percent, which means that at least 6 in 10 computers run Google’s browser.

At the same time, Microsoft Edge is far behind with a little over 4 percent. This is disappointing, to say the least, especially because Edge is the default browser in Windows 10 and Microsoft has used rather controversial tactics in an attempt to convince users to give it a try.

The good news is that Microsoft Edge has evolved substantially lately, and many people have started using it as their daily drivers.

As a heavy user, however, I wish I could that. At this point, however, Google Chrome remains the browser of choice on my work laptop, phone, and home PC, because of three big reasons:

I have all the extensions I need

Since I spend most of the time connected to the Internet, I have no less than 14 browser extensions installed in Google Chrome, and needless to say, not even half are available for Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft has struggled to increase the number of extensions supporting its browser, and while the essentials have already landed in the Microsoft Store, there still are way too many that are exclusive to Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 April 2018 Update

At some level, Microsoft’s struggle to bring more extensions to Edge reminds me of the company’s failed strategy of bringing Windows Phone apps to the Store. I can only hope that Microsoft Edge would at some point have at least half of the extensions available for Google Chrome because that could be the moment when many more users might reconsider going back to the default Windows 10 browser.

It’s still faster and never crashes

Microsoft Edge has improved substantially lately, and the Redmond-based software giant focused specifically on making it more secure and faster. And while in terms of security I have no doubt that Edge is one super-advanced application, Google Chrome is still the faster of the two most of the time.

There are many websites, including some Microsoft pages, that load much slower in Microsoft Edge than in Google Chrome for whatever reason.

It happens occasionally for Microsoft Edge to fail to load websites entirely, and there were moments when not a single page was working in the browser, leaving me with basically no option than to stare at the start page. Or to switch to Google Chrome, which is exactly what I did because sticking with a browser that struggles to load websites makes absolutely no sense for me and affects my productivity.

It receives updates more often

Microsoft Edge is part of Windows 10 and is only being updated with new features twice a year when the software giant releases new OS feature improvements.

This means that Windows 10 Redstone updates are the only moments when Microsoft Edge gets new features, because otherwise, all it receives are security fixes and improvements published on every month’s Patch Tuesday cycle.

Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 April 2018 Update

For comparison, Google Chrome receives updates much more often, and users are allowed to download early builds of the next major release, giving them the option to try out what’s new in advance. For Edge users, this is only possible by joining the Windows Insider program, which means that you have to run an experimental Windows 10 build just for trying out Edge.

Rumor had it that Microsoft wanted to publish Edge in the Microsoft Store for faster update delivery and more frequent improvements, but for some reason, this plan has been abandoned.

In the meantime, Google Chrome continues to dominate the browser world, and if nothing changes on the Edge front, it is very likely to remain the number one choice many years from now.

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Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 April 2018 Update
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