From a profit viewpoint, why should Microsoft support Edge?
EDIT: I should preface this message by saying that everything here is purely speculative, and is the result of, probably, 15 minutes of searching. I do not know what reasons Microsoft had for creating the original Microsoft Edge or this new version, and I do not know if Bing is important to Edge's success. Please don't think of any of these theories as facts. END OF EDIT. I think we can mostly agree that Microsoft Edge is, or at least will be, pretty great. It has collections, a music control thing, a development team that actively listens to user input, a nice looking NTP, and way more coming "soon". However, a big question started bothering me this afternoon: Why is Microsoft developing a Chromium Web Browser? Well, let's look back at where this all began: Project Spartan. https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2015/03/30/introducing-project-spartan-the-new-browser-built-for-windows-10/ Spartan was meant to be way more user-friendly, faster, and less power hungry than Chrome. It was supposed to do to Chrome what Chrome had done to Internet Explorer and Firefox. But more than that: Spartan's tagline was The New Browser Built for Windows 10. If you wanted to use the best new browser, you had to have a Windows machine. Furthermore, if you wanted to use some of Edge's best new features, like Inking on Web Pages, you would need a pen, and essentially, if you needed a pen, you needed a Microsoft Surface Tablet. So from my best guess, Microsoft saw that the web browser had become the most important piece of software and wanted to create a browser that would make their hardware sell like hotcakes. https://youtu.be/q4rL_Lnt6kA Obviously, that didn't happen. So, at the tail end of 2018, Microsoft announced that Spartan Edge would be replaced by Chromium Edge. This was so exciting; now Edge would be just as fast and stable as Chrome, but with a plethora of new Microsoft tools and UI enhancements! I'm really loving the new Microsoft Edge for exactly those reasons, but there's a problem: "from a profit standpoint, why should Microsoft support Edge?" Edge runs on Windows 7, 8.1 and Mac just as well as it runs on Windows 10. Furthermore, Edge inherited a lot of Chrome's clunky mouse / keyboard based UI, so it isn't a shining example of the Surface hardware or the Fluent UI software. If Edge isn't a tool to market Windows, and Edge can't generate profits on its own, then why is Microsoft spending so many resources on this project? Maybe we can look at the new marketing page for Edge: Oh no. Bing is supposedly one of the main reasons to download Edge. In fact, it gets its own page! Bing definitely generates revenue for Microsoft through the incorporation of advertising, but relying on Bing to fund Edge raises two really big alarms for me: First off, Bing is to Google Search what Spartan Edge was to Chrome. Sure, both Bing and Google work, but most people use Google. Second, Edge can't force users to search with Bing. Bing is a website, the same as Google.com. It's really easy to get to Google.com in Microsoft Edge. Maybe this is why Edge made it super difficult to change search providers? Seriously, "default search provider" is the very last option in Privacy and Services. The only way to hide it better would be to put it "in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard." - Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy This partnership with Bing is strenuous at best, and the perceived reliance on Bing's revenue seems ill-fated. Regardless of how popular Edge becomes in two years, what will happen to it? In two years, how big will Edge's development team be? In two years, will the development team be able to pump out features like they have in 2019? I really want to see Edge achieve, and maintain, a status as one of the most innovative and well-designed web browsers available. As much as I am afraid to kick this beehive, the importance of the topic feels too great to let slide. Hopefully, someone can provide an answer.[Done] Add a "Search by voice" option in the new tab page
There needs to be an option in the new tab page in Edge to initiate a web search using voice and picture (reverse image search), instead of having to go to the Bing and then click on the microphone icon, Or going to Bing images and doing the reverse search.Bing visual search built into Edge
Currently Microsoft edge already has an image search shortcut in the context menu when selecting an image from the web, this is very useful, but Bing's search for images is quite raw still. Often not giving the proper results. But in recent days, Bing AI has integrated the image upload and analysis function of GPT-4 that has greatly improved searches, so I wonder: Why don't we use this feature in conjunction with Bing Chat in the sidebar, to search for images using it?Windows Copilot AI in Microsoft Edge | Integration with Windows
The latest version of Microsoft Edge canary 116.0.1923.0 has more improvements in the AI side of things, specifically, it's got a new icon, possibly indicating that it's more than the Bing Chat AI. It's being called Copilot and also Windows Copilot. Integration with Windows It's capable of doing other actions too such as changing Windows theme between dark/light modes. I haven't explored it more yet. You want to try this too? Check out this GitHub repository: https://github.com/HotCakeX/MSEdgeFeatures If you have the latest Edge canary installed, you can download this Edge canary shortcut and run the browser using that. Make sure Edge canary is not already open and Startup boost in edge://settings/system is not turned on. P.S. This is for advanced users only who know what they are doing, and there is no guarantee that that the features will work as expected since they are not officially announced yet.
I am in Bing AI but I don't have the bing AI on my sidebar nor will the button redirect me.
I have tried multiple times to refresh, update ME, but it still keeps redirecting me to Bing AI as soon as it goes to the chat link... Is something bugged on my account? (It redirects to the chat link but goes back to the search again.) (and also yes, my windows 11 is up to date (in the settings))Request for Extension Suggestion for MS Edge: Inaccurate Bing Recommendations and Broken Links
I requested that Bing inform me of an extension for MS Edge that is like the official Firefox extension 'Container'. However, despite sending a link to the Firefox extension as an example, Bing continued to suggest a supposed 'Container extension for Edge'. Unfortunately, the link provided led to a 404-error page, which Bing continued to send to me even after I notified them of the issue. Eventually, I gave up on finding the extension I needed through Bing's suggestions. Ps.: Video attachedSS46: Hey Edge - voice control
Suggestion (SS): 46 Classification: VOICE CONTROL PRIORITY IN MY OPINION: 2-3 on a scale from 1 (low) to 10 (high) Bing already has some integration of voice control, Firefox too. Now i think it's time for Hey Edge function. Examples of tasks Hey Edge should be able to do: -Hey Edge, move tabs to the right to another window, hide it in macos, save PDF and add all links to bookmark folder IMPORT for all tabs in this new window; once done close the window. - Hey Edge, reload all techcommunity.microsoft - Hey Edge, change to Bing as default - Hey Edge, mute all - Hey Edge, volume 50% - Hey Edge, go to minute 3.45 - Hey Edge, loop mode - Hey Edge, loop from x to y - Hey Edge, set download path to configuration 1 - Hey Edge, search this with %s1 %s2 ... at the same time - Hey Edge, open %s settings - Hey Edge, add this search to %s and use abbreviation <ed - Hey Edge, duplicate 5 tabs from this - Hey Edge, change my profile image now - Hey Edge, launch xxx (an extension) - Hey Edge, quit Edge in 10 minutes - Hey Edge, open random website from folder XXX - Hey Edge, disable all extensions for 5 seconds. - Hey Edge, random open my most visited youtube links - Hey Edge, write new instagram post (by opening a 3. app for posting) - Hey Edge, activate all disabled extensions. - Hey Edge, reopen last closed session - Hey Edge, reopen last 7 tabs - Hey Edge, move tab to first - Hey Edge, color tab to red - Hey Edge, go back to the source (example when you open webpage a then b ... to z, go back to a) - Hey Edge, pipmode - Hey Edge, go to next video - Hey Edge, save to collections (last used) - Hey Edge, close tabs to left - Hey Edge, merge windows - Hey Edge, quit - Hey Edge, open flags - Hey Edge, activate flag xx - Hey Edge, restart - Hey Edge, share this page to xxx - Hey Edge, new mail to xxx - Hey Edge, install xxx - Hey Edge, create new profile for account a@a.com - Hey Edge, delete this profile - Hey Edge, activate vpn now (once integrated) - Hey Edge, change background new tab pictures from onedrive folder AA to BB - Hey Edge, open all links inside folder XXX - Hey Edge, download all images that i click in the future, stop it once i say stop - Hey Edge, launch beta profile xxx - Hey Edge, show me when i visited this page in the past - Hey Edge, add this page to bookmarks (using recent folder) as shortcut <emis - Hey Edge open 6x incognito pages with url www.... - Hey Edge, ban all selected email from outlook - Hey Edge, start new chat support session - Hey Edge, new feedback - Hey Edge, share this file (in onedrive = this mean you copy directly the url) - Hey Edge, save all picture to onedrive - Hey Edge, open word - Hey Edge, find similar websites - Hey Edge, show me my IP - Hey Edge, export this image as png - Hey Edge, save this files to xxx and rename it as yyy - Hey Edge, open Missy Edge profile - Hey Edge, run workspace 4 now - Hey Edge, run highlight mode now (once integrated) - Hey Edge, save next selected texts to collections - Hey Edge, search hello in youtube as playlist - Hey Edge, disable notifications from all future visited pages - Hey Edge, activate flash always - Hey Edge, open all selected urls in edge dev profile 3 (if we use canary for example) - Hey Edge, copy all urls from tabs - Hey Edge, add selected tabs to my vertical favorite tabs (once integrated) - Hey Edge, open with profile 2 .... (once container is integrated) - Hey Edge, download all images from tabs - Hey Edge, create merge all tab groups and move to new window by hiding it in macos - Hey Edge, download all files in this website with torrent (once integrated) - Hey Edge, open in tabs selected links - Hey Edge, export bookmarks every 5 minutes to my mac - Hey Edge, reverse search this image - Hey Edge, show me social accounts of this person (from a video/photo) - Hey Edge, create new outlook alias b@.... - Hey Edge, change outlook recovery email to .... - Hey Edge, ban all social accounts for 4 hours - Hey Edge, add label xxx to this page (for history panel, once integrated) - Hey Edge export last 7 days of history to my desktop folder xxx - Hey Edge, activate kids mode - Hey Edge, create new rule for this email and use setting 1 (example forward to 3 emails ...) - etc. If we can run such multiple rules without Hey Edge would be cool too, so something in keyboard maestro style. Obviously first we need to support a better way to run such actions and similar actions without Hey Edge, but once this is done, different action can be implemented in Hey Edge too. Then it depends, sometimes is much faster to do manually instead of saying Hey Edge... (and maybe Hey Edge doesn't understand what we say too...., like Bing does) To be more faster instead of saying "Hey Edge, save pdf for all tabs to the right" or similar, we just say "Hey Edge, pdf right". The same for all other examples You can even integrate a smart Hey Edge, where i can combine my manual and Hey Edge actions. Example: i'm reading a pdf. at the same time i say "Hey Edge, pdf right once i say NOW". then i read pdf on tab 2, 3, 4, 5. Once done i say "NOW" and you export all pdf to the right (based on the tabs where i requested this rule). This means in the same time i can close and open new tabs, you do the action only once i say "NOW". Such "NOW" actions can be implemented in so many workflows and would be a great productivity boost.
