Microsoft Edge is better than Google Chrome, but I can’t bring myself to switch

If you’ve used Windows 10 or Windows 11 for any period of time on-line, you’ve most likely tried to obtain your favourite net browser sooner or later and seen the intrusive message from Windows reminding, cajoling, and in any other case pleading with you to rethink that Google Chrome obtain and simply give Microsoft Edge an opportunity.

If you’re like me, you might need recoiled a bit by the pushiness but thought nothing of it and simply cancelled out of the dialog field to proceed your obtain in peace. 

I’m always reviewing new laptops, desktops, and different Windows-powered methods that each one come preloaded with Windows Edge. Edge is very firmly set as your default browser. 

Having to change to default browser over to Google Chrome each time has led to tons of of makes an attempt by Microsoft to get me to keep, and every time I’ve clicked – every time I’ve switched to Google Chrome – I’ve gotten just a little extra decided that Chrome is the browser I need. I don’t need to hold having this dialog with my OS.

I appear to be sticking with Google Chrome purely out of stubbornness and spite. This is hardly a wholesome, cheap method, but right here I am, penning this up in Google Docs on a Chrome Browser whereas arguably the very best net browser in the marketplace sits right here on my PC, unused. This shouldn’t be occurring, and it’s necessary to discover why it is — and what Microsoft can do to begin gaining floor on arch-rival Google.

 Microsoft Edge has a number of nice options going for it 

To begin with, lets simply go over how superior Microsoft Edge really is.

Built on the identical Chromium basis as Google Chrome, a lot of the core performance of the 2 browsers are similar. If there’s an extension for Google Chrome, it most likely exists for Edge as properly, one thing that may’t be stated of Firefox, Opera, or different browsers.

Microsoft has additionally constructed a ton of further options into the Edge browser, utterly separate from the Extensions mannequin, and lots of of those are phenomenal.

The Edge Collections system, the place you’ll be able to construct particular folders of bookmarks with ease to assist hold you organized, is so good that it makes you take a look at conventional bookmarks with disdain. Plus, you’ll be able to export particular collections to a spreadsheet, making supply exporting for college work a lot simpler.

Then, there’s the instruments part, which has the whole lot from net seize to read-aloud accessibility options (additionally incredible for listening to written content material whereas engaged on one thing else) constructed proper into the browser. Chrome is lacking a few of these key options, and as an expert author, listening to what I’ve written being learn again to me is a good way to lower down on copy errors, typos, and the like. It’s a vital author’s instrument, and it’s constructed proper into Edge.

Also constructed into Edge is the brand new Bing AI chatbot, powered by Open AI and ChatGPT. This makes it considerably simpler to work with these new AI instruments, and it’s proper at your fingertips.

Here’s the kicker: Microsoft Edge has phenomenal efficiency that Chrome couldn’t dream of. Chrome is infamous for hogging reminiscence and grinding to a crawl when you’ve gotten too many browser tabs open. While Edge isn’t immune to reminiscence restraints, it merely does a a lot better job managing its reminiscence sources, doubtless owing to its a lot tighter integration into the OS itself.

And with that proper there, it is smart that Edge could be the browser I’d use on a regular basis. So why the heck am I nonetheless working with Chrome?

Microsoft, please, cease asking and begin promoting

Personally, I assume that folks’s resistance to Microsoft Edge is our inclination to assume that if Microsoft is pushing one thing this onerous, it could actually’t be that good. 

This most likely stems from the pure mistrust of realizing somebody is attempting to push you into one thing, and Microsoft is very clearly attempting to push you into Microsoft Edge — because it should, contemplating that Microsoft is a enterprise and Edge is considered one of its core merchandise. But, there is one thing unseemly about the way in which Microsoft does it, and it does a disservice to Edge, turning folks off.

Microsoft has tried all types of how to fence us in. It breaks the simplest means to change your default browser to Chrome. It slaps promoted adverts on search engines like google and yahoo for the time period “Google Chrome” and places strategically positioned buttons over obtain hyperlinks to hold customers penned into the default Edge expertise. 

Microsoft ought to as an alternative strive to promote me on the very best Microsoft Edge options and what it could actually do better than Google Chrome. 

Naturally, the simplest means to lose me as a consumer is to strive to hold me locked in with varied clear tips and gimmicky conduct. No one likes that, and the anti-marketing Microsoft has built-in to its total product line, quickly to embody Teams and Office, does a critical disservice to an in any other case unbelievable net browser.

 Can Microsoft Edge win me over? 

It’s actually onerous to say if I will ever migrate myself over to Edge, as a result of there is a robust contrarian streak in me that rebels towards feeling pressured to do one thing. It’s onerous to let go of that typically.

Part of Microsoft’s drawback for customers like me is it is relying by myself private maturity to acknowledge that their product has substantial advantages by myself. In a great world, that should not be an issue, but we do not stay in preferrred world the place all of us are in remedy to work on our self-sabotaging behaviors. 

If Microsoft desires Edge to succeed, it wants to attain customers like me the place we’re at, and what it is doing now undoubtedly is not that. Do I additionally want to develop up and get away from Chrome? Absolutely, my lengthy struggling RAM will particularly thank me for that, and, as at all times, hope springs everlasting. Maybe this is the 12 months I lastly make the switch. 

Just, please, do not ask me to use Bing.