For years Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was one of the biggest running tech jokes. Slow, insecure and all kinds of problematic stories were synonymous with the browser. Then Microsoft scored a hit with a switch a new browser that later came to use the Chromium based Blink engine.
Many users found it faster and better and somewhat shockingly less resource heavy. That advantage is being eroded by various so called features and extensions.
Among these features were shopping integrations that allowed users to find coupons and discounts and in some jurisdiction even offering buy now pay later features in the default download of a browser. Gaming features or a so called gaming panel is coming as well, with little regard to how many percentage of any browsers users would care about any, even simple, simple games being part of a browser. Other features like Collections are perhaps useful for those who collect info and would use syncing the said info across Microsoft’s ecosystem.
The latest bloat is a Skype Meet Now extension. Skype has a poor track record in terms of reliability and perhaps just as importantly being resource heavy on its own. Launching it from and using it within a browser can and will add do this resource hog. Skype is also notorious for new versions breaking things.
With a desktop market share of nearly 10% Edge has done better than many thought it would but it may plateau at these levels that it has achieved if it does not focus on speed and security.
