Casual internet users may not be aware, but the means of viewing the net via browser applications has been in a state of war since seemingly forever. First it was Netscape Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. IE won and dominated how surfers viewed the internet until the rise of Firefox from Mozilla (founded by former Netscape people), and then Google Chrome. Microsoft eventually tried to fix its own platform by introducing the new Edge browser with Windows 10, but it has not managed to win over Chrome users. Now Microsoft may be dropping Edge after only three years of use, for a Chrome-based browser replacement.
The Verge has it that Microsoft is now developing a new internet browser that will serve as the default for Windows 10; and that browser will be based on search giant Google’s own runaway hit application Chrome. Microsoft has resigned itself to the reality that its browser engine EdgeHTML is still paling in comparison to Chrome’s inner workings. To that end, they are building up a new browser based on Chromium, the open-source engine created by Google from which it develops all features that go into Chrome. The Microsoft Chromium-based browser project was first revealed under the reporting codename “Anaheim”.
Microsoft finally giving in and making a browser based on Chrome is understandable, given how Edge, despite the best efforts of its development team, continues to have compatibility issues that are not a problem in Chromium. Both private users and businesses have been clamoring on Microsoft to sort over its EdgeHTML problems, seeing as more web developers are still relying on the rendering engine of Chrome to optimally display sites and pages. Google’s website has become the measuring stick by which all web browsing standards are stacked against, with its engine often being the first to adopt any new technologies.
Before finally admitting that it was developing a new Chromium-based browser, Microsoft has gone out of its way to convince Windows 10 users that its default Edge application was the better platform on their operating system rather than Google Chrome. It got to the point that Microsoft even removed the Chrome installer from the Windows Store (now Microsoft Store) by citing some store policies violated by Google’s ubiquitous web app. Its admission of “defeat” to Chrome at this point no longer seems so devastating as a result. Microsoft may soon publicly announce its upcoming Chromium-based internet browser as early as before the week is out.
Image courtesy of LifeHacker Australia
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