For the last few months I have been seeing a lot of articles in the technical and computer websites about using Microsofts new browser “Edge”. I have been resisting as I happen to like Googles Chrome browser, mainly due to the integration with all things Google (Gmail, Drive, Docs etc. all work nicely in Chrome as you would expect) and I am a big fan of all the Google services and use them extensively. Today I have had the need to use two different Google accounts but don’t want to link them, and both had to be open. I decided now was a good time to try Microsoft Edge.
I searched for it in the menus as I had long ago unpinned it from the taskbar, at about the same time I disabled the privacy destroying Cortana bar. I clicked its icon and waited for this supposedly super fast experience to start. And I waited. And I waited. Eventually Edge appeared, and the search / address bar appeared so I started typing. The address bar disappeared and that other piece of Microsoft crap AKA BING appeared. I have tried Bing, Microsoft once urged me to let them do comparison searches on my behalf (yep I was sure they would be fair and unbiased comparisons, right??) they assured me I would be surprised by which search engine gave me better results. I was surprised because in spite of Microsoft intercepting search terms on the way to both engines Google returned better, more pertinent results, in one case Bing was so far off it was on another planet.
I digress, a little anyway as we shall return to Bing. The browser had disregarded my input and taken me where it had been programmed to go. I tried again and by this time 3 tabs were opened to Microsoft pages, Bing, MSN whatever and something else. I tried getting to Google but the browser crashed. I reopened Edge and expected a much faster loading time now it had opened once, but again I waited and waited until it was ready to go. I finally managed to enter Google and do what I needed to. At this point I also decided that I would change the default search engine away from Bing, another mistake.
After several frustrated attempts I gave up trying on my own, as what seemed like an easy change was not happening so I Googled for the answer of how to change the default search engine in Edge. Microsoft support pages tell you to simply go to the desired search engine, click a few menu buttons and then select your new default. Still stuck on Bing. I looked elsewhere, all roads led to the same steps which resulted in the same frustration of Bing not shifting out of the default slot. So I left it there.
This then is the story of my fight with The Edge browser, and my defeat at its hands. It just doesn’t do what is claimed. i.e.
- faster opening, nope, it took much longer every time I tried
- faster browsing, nope it took longer to render a page than Chrome
- easy to use, nope several attempts to change the default browser says otherwise as well as pages appearing and losing your typed in requests.
Sorry but I want things to just work, not get in the way, not force me into using Microsofts inferior offerings. The only thing left to say is that this is my opinion and my findings, your experience may be different, please comment below if you have anything to add or any point to make.