Last year, Microsoft announced a relaunched version of its Edge browser built in Chromium. In January, it was released to the public and has a new design, support for Chrome extensions and faster browser technologies.
The market share of Microsoft Edge has risen to about 7.5% but Microsoft is keen on promoting the browser in as many ways as possible. With recent Windows updates, the company has been bundling the new Edge as a replacement to the legacy version, which shipped with Windows 10 for five years.
Microsoft Edge is now a true competitor to Google Chrome and quite honestly is a superb browser, but the company cannot continue these methods of agressively promoting it to users that have no interest in using it. This move is the latest in these aggressive techniques and surely won’t be the last. It’s only affecting users on Windows – not Mac – but these users have put up with suggested apps in the Start menu, notifications to try out new Microsoft products and more. It’s got to stop.
– Author’s Opinion, Ben Ward
In the latest move, Microsoft is prompting users to try out the new browser through adverts on the taskbar. By default, Edge is now pinned to the taskbar, so it could confuse some people who have no reason to use it.
This follows adverts placed in Windows Search, the online version of Outlook and the Start menu. It hasn’t yet lead to Microsoft being investigated for antitrust complaints, but that’s something we can’t rule out.
