Microsoft has launched its new Edge browser that is based on Google’s Chromium project. Chromium is an open-source project that many modern browsers are based on. You can download Chromium Edge now for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, and macOS.
This is a pretty big move forward for Microsoft and with it comes to a totally new logo for it’s Microsoft Edge browser. No longer will it be a blue “e” that we’ve long ignored in our start menus for decades, but instead will now be a wave, you know, for surfing the world wide web.
While the new Edge is here it’s still a ways to go before catching up to other established browsers. Microsoft seems to understand this and is positioning Edge for businesses and education but notes that more consumer features will be integrated later this year.
You’ll still have support for Chrome-based extensions, 4K streaming, Dolby audio, inking in PDF, and privacy tools, so it’s useable if you want to catch this new wave. And if you are currently using their legacy Edge browser, Microsoft notes that Chromium Edge is at least twice as fast.
And if you are using Windows 10 like most rational people on a PC, you won’t have to go out and download the new Edge browser manually as you’ll eventually get it in a future update.
Here are some features that the team is working on and what you can expect to see integrated into the new Edge in the next few months:
- Hover over tabs to see website previews
- Edit the toolbar to decide what you want to see there like favorites, share, and the home button
- Microsoft Pay integration with autofill
- Find past browser sessions in Windows timeline
- Downloading progressive web apps from the Microsoft Edge Addons Store
- Support for WebVR sites and apps
- PDF features like table of contents, page layouts, read aloud, text notes, and highlighter pen
- Search contextually – highlight an item to search in a pane on a webpage
- More learning tools features like text options, page themes, grammar tools, read aloud, and line focus
- Windows Hello – it allows you to use face, fingerprint, or PIN for authentication instead of a password
- Ability to write directly on web pages (like Web notes)
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