Microsoft Edge is actually good

Google Chrome is the preferred browser for over 65% of the internet, according to Google. statcounter.comBut I don’t think you needed to tell me that. Perhaps you are currently reading this article about Chrome derivatives. But why does Chrome have the largest share of the market? Chrome isn’t even the default browser on most desktops. In short, to make Chrome your go-to browser, you have to deliberately cut corners.

Chrome doesn’t necessarily have to be good. Should be slightly better than alternatives. For a long time, Internet Explorer was the only alternative available. In its heyday, Google Chrome was faster, better-looking, and easier to customize than other browsers, but we’re here to tell you that there’s an alternative browser that has almost everything you’d expect from Chrome. All without exhausting system resources.

We’re here to tell you that Microsoft Edge is actually better.

Thankfully, Microsoft Edge is a Chromium-based browser. This means that almost anything that works in Chrome will also work in Edge. With that in mind, I started importing all my extensions, bookmarks, and other data. This is primarily handled by synchronizing your existing Google Account. I ran into a few issues, but it didn’t implode, and within a week, I made Microsoft Edge my default on all my devices.

Based on my preconceived notions about Microsoft browsers, I expected things to go at a snail’s pace compared to Chrome, and prepared for the inevitable drop in performance. However, for browsers that use less than half the amount of RAM, the performance tradeoff is negligible. There’s no word on how well Edge will perform on any particular machine, but this lends some credence to Microsoft’s long-heard “best performing browser on Windows” claim.

Yes, there are extensions. Most recently, Chrome tried to catch up with Edge’s tab sleep feature added in 2021 to make it less demanding on the system, but Edge’s settings menu also has a dedicated tab to tweak its behavior, which can have a negative impact. may give. Affects system performance.

My favorite feature of Edge available out of the box is the vertical tab bar. This almost sounds like it, but it helps keep your browser looking cleaner and more organized when you have dozens of tabs open at once. However, the sidebar feature is definitely right around the corner, acting like a second bookmarks bar around the window (Chrome has a similar feature, but a little less versatile). You can pin a specific URL there, but it also supports some apps, such as independent search that allows you to search without opening a new tab. Also, useful tools such as calculator, translator, and unit converter are built in by default.