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leeuniverse's avatar
leeuniverse
Copper Contributor
Aug 18, 2019

FEATURE REQUESTS: Detailed Listing of Needed Key Features.

Most of the major browsers do not have these features, while some might have a couple, ALL are missing most of them.  Due to this, I've been relegated to using a "Chinese" Browser, "360Chrome" or Maxthon.  I would like this to finally change with the new Microsoft Chromium Edge Browser.  I shouldn't have to go to China for a good quality feature-filled browser.

 

Also, "Extensions" are not the solution.  I used to try that with Chrome, but it just made the browser crash more than it already did due to the bad coding they do with that browser, as well many things you still couldn't do that I needed or the extensions stopped being provided for whatever reason.

There are only TWO browsers that do ALL of what I'm wanting, that's 360Chrome and Maxthon.  Maxthon sadly rather than being a shell browser they used to be created their own and was never the same, and it also lost good Extension support due to it being more complicated to make extensions, and it can't use Chrome Extensions which 360Chrome can, so I've been using 360Chrome for some time now when I used to use Maxthon.  Maxthon Classic is when it was last good for me.

 

Here is the list in order of priority...

(Note, many of these features can be one or more "Settings".  It's not required to have many of them as default, they can simply be one of a few options depending on Preferences of the user.  Both 360Chrome and Maxthon has Settings for many of these.  Please refer to those browsers of their options to get an idea of how they can be implemented for Edge).

 

1. Double Click Tab to Close it.

2. Drag and Drop Selected Text/Link to where it opens a New Tab with Search page (using your selected search engine) or the Link in new Tab (per below tab opening selected procedures).  This feature is WAY better than the Right Click and Open New Tab way.  Though that can still be there for those who like to do it that way.

3. Option to have Tab Row at Top, Middle, or Bottom of Page. (I prefer middle so the tab looks like it's part of the page, and it's easier to get to.  I dislike massively tabs on the TOP of the screen.  I literally SUFFER being forced into doing certain things a certain way, such as having tabs on the top of the screen hurts me, is not comfortable.)

4. Button to "Click to Restore Tab" of the last closed page...  You can also Right Click on it to show up to a 10 page History as well a link to the Full History app, but not only that if you keep hitting the button it opens EACH last closed page in order.  Also, it's history is still there when you've re-opened the browser.  An example of this is in the above picture, the Left facing half-circle arrow.  These are very useful features.

5. Options on Opening New Tab, including when you click on a Favorited Link...  For example, if you want it to open Next to the currently open tab, open replacing the currently open tab, to the Right or Left, or open after the last tab, Focused or Non-Focused, etc.  Me, I like all new tabs to open to the Right of the currently open tab and non-focused, whether I'm dragging and dropping, or opening a Favorites link.  You can see in the above two browsers how they do those settings.

6. Various Right Click on Tab Functions... Refresh All, Close Left Tabs, Translate Page, Add Page to Favorites, etc.

7. Translate Bar Pop-up when going to a webpage that's in another Language than your default.  It allows you to click a button to translate page.  Now, this might seem unnecessary with other translate options, but this was a feature in 360Chrome which doesn't seem to be working now, was disabled or something, but the cool thing about it is that it automatically translated every page you went to on that domain, so you didn't have to right-click every page you went to and hit translate, or otherwise.  This was really convenient, and would be good to have part of the new Edge.  It think it was/is a feature in Chromium itself that might just need to be activated or whatever?  It would pop-up at the top of the page as a "bar" with a couple of translate options like Google Translate, Bing or whatever.

8. Use Chrome Plugins with us logging into our Google Account natively.  360Chrome in Settings allows us to login to our Google account, and I can use Google Chrome Extensions in the browser etc.

(PS... I don't know your "path" in this, whether you're making the browser be able to work with Chrome Extensions, or if you're making it so Extension Developers can make them easy to work with the new Edge, or both, either way, we need good extension support.)

9. See our Saved Passwords (we would of course have to re-login into our Microsoft/Browser account to view them for extra security even if we were already logged in).  Maxthon allows the viewing of our saved passwords for various websites, 360Chrome and likely all other browsers do not, this is a massive irritation for me.  I need to be able to view my saved pages and their passwords.

10. Startup Link Selection...  While opening the links one last had open on startup is great, a feature I was missing that Maxthon has (though they changed how it works) is being able to see a "list" of the links/pages you had open when you closed the browser, and being able to REMOVE the links you don't want to open.  So, for example, say you had a ton of pages open when you closed the browser, when you opened it again you would see a LIST of all the pages you last had open, you could then click a Select All box to not open any, you could check the ones, or "x" them out to not open the links you don't want to open on this startup of the browser, OR you can even click the links to open the tabs you only want open.  There would, of course, be a button you hit to open whatever link you had left to open them all.  This was useful for a lot of reasons, one being that maybe you had opened a virus page or runaway scripts, so you closed the browser to get rid of it, and being able to select the links to open again on the new browser startup would prevent that page/s from opening, while the standard Chrome method just opens ALL pages you had open previous automatically. (see Maxthon for who they currently do this to get an idea.)

 

(The below are "extras" that should be default in a browser and would be useful to the majority of people, however, they are not "musts" to have (especially not initially).  So, I can live if you don't ever include them in the browser.  Most can be addressed with extensions, but the above simply properly can't and shouldn't.)

 

11. Allow Switching to different browser core such as Webkit and otherwise including IE, so the page can be viewed with that browser core in case there are issues with Chromium for a particular site.  Both 360Chrome and Maxthon does this.  In 360 there's a little icon in the web address bar that you click to select which core to use for the page.  The browser also "remembers" the selection for the page.

12. Resource Sniffer - Maxthon has this as an example of how it works.  It's a useful tool.

13. Night Mode...  While there are generally plenty of Extensions which do this, it should just be part of the browser by default.  What it does is any white space on the page it dark greys/blackens it, which is good for watching shows etc. if you don't want to full screen it etc.

14. Save Snippets...  Maxthon has a feature in which we are logged into our Maxthon account and we can save text and I think now even image snippets, they apparently call it "MaxNote" now, but that was a feature I loved which I'm not sure that I have in 360Chrome (because part of the browser is still Chinese, so not sure what all its extra account-related features are).

15. If you choose to add "Snippets" above, it might be good to include in the Browser a simple "Screenshot" tool, which could be used to work with your snippets feature.

 

These are the most important features that most browsers are missing, or have only a couple of.

The last two can take longer or you may not "need" to add, they are just something extra useful.  But almost all of the others I ABSOLUTELY NEED as part of my browser, especially the first 10.  The last few I can live without or without for awhile, but the first 10 or so, I NEED to have.

 

Again, I've put them in order of priority.  I hope you can finally add these so I can have a good quality browser since Chrome Developers wouldn't listen, but even if they had, I really disliked that that browser constantly crashed when using it, over years many times trying it.  Thank you for your time, I hope you actually care about creating the best browser there is.

 

Sincerely, Lee

 

(p.s. There are a couple of things I didn't mention, but only because it looks like you're doing them, such as the automatic listing of most visited sites on the Home Page.)

21 Replies

  • dftf-wip's avatar
    dftf-wip
    Iron Contributor

    leeuniverse 

     

    (1) Double-click a tab to close it
    Just middle-click on a tab with your mouse to instantly close it

     

    (2) Drag-and-Drop selected text to search
    Select the text, right-click, use the second option: "Search the web for"

     

    (2) Drag-and-Drop a link to open a new tab
    Have two Edge windows on-screen.  Drag a link from one into the other.  Edge will instantly load that link in a new tab.  (You can also drag a link over any tab; when you let go, Edge will switch to that tab and replace whatever site was in that tab with the address in the link you dragged.  You can also drag a link between tabs, or at the end of your tabs, and let-go when the white-arrow is where you want a new tab to be created; let go, and a new tab opens in that place)

     

    (3) Option to have Tab Row at top, middle or bottom
    Edge thesedays has a "vertical tabs" feature, where they can go-down the left-hand side (and in a future-version, right-hand side), but not middle or bottom. Try Vivaldi: that supports tabs at the bottom.

     

    (4) Button to "Click to Restore Tab"
    Right-click on any tab, or any empty area on the top-bar, and choose "Reopen closed tab". Your most-recently closed site comes-back. Do this repeatedly and it will keep re-opening in the order they were closed, most-recent to oldest.

     

    (4) "Right-click to show up to a 10 page history [for that tab]"
    Click on the tab you want to do this for, so that tab is the active one. Then right-click the back or forward arrows to see history related to just that tab.

     

    (5) Options to make tabs open next to the currently open tab, open replacing the currently open tab, to the right or left, or open after the last tab, focused or non-focused
    Next to current tab = middle-click a link or bookmark
    Replace the currently open tab = click a link or bookmark
    To the left = drag a link or bookmark to where you want the tab to open, and when the white up-arrow is in the correct position, let go (or once the tab is open, drag it to where you want it on the bar)
    Non-focused: middle-click a link or bookmark; the tab won't become active

    Focused: is this any-different to "replace the currently open tab"?

     

    (7) Translate pop-up when going to a webpage that's in another language
    Edge does do this. Go to edge://settings/languages and check "Offer to translate pages that aren't in a language I read" is turned on.

     

    (8) Use Chrome Plugins with us logging into our Google Account natively
    You can add extensions designed for Google Chrome into Microsoft Edge thesedays; and when you visit the "Chrome Web Store" inside Edge, there is a "sign in" link in the top-right. Try signing in with your Google Account and see what happens.

     

    (9) See our saved passwords
    Go to edge://settings/passwords in the Address Bar and look under "Saved passwords"

     

    (11) Allow switching to a different browser core
    Why? Edge thesedays uses Chromium, which is used by virtually-all other browsers: Brave, Vivaldi, Opera and Google Chrome all use it. WebKit is Apple's engine, and is only available on Apple devices; there's no official Windows version thesedays. You can use the IE engine via "IE Mode", though this is only for enterprises.  (The only-other major browser-engine available for Windows thesedays is the Firefox one... if you want it, just install the Firefox browser!)

     

    (14) Save snippets
    Look into the "Collections" feature in Edge; it will likely do what you want

     

    (15) A simple screenshot tool
    Right-click a webpage then click "Web capture".  Windows also comes with built-in screenshot tools: "Snip & Sketch" (the newer one) and "Snipping Tool" (the older one)

  • Anthony's avatar
    Anthony
    Steel Contributor

    I hate bloatware. I hate it on smart phones, and on software too. Especially bloatware or features that can't be removed or most people will never use and it simply lags out everything. Why I like Edge Chromium. It's simple, and doesn't have a lot of unnecessary stuff attached to it which is why it loads and runs fast (at least for me). If one wants to download their own extensions from the extension store that's fine. Even Old Edge and IE was good in that sense as it was just a simple normal web browser not boggled down with a laundry list of stuff which 90 percent of it I probably wouldn't use anyhow.


    I use Chrome Canary and once in a blue moon the original Chromium to side by side compare it with Edge Canary. If one compares them side by side Edge is already far superior than Google Chrome and Edge is not even out of beta yet. Although they both share a common source and that's the "Chromium" browser (the browser with the Chrome logo in blue that is too raw to be used as a default browser...it can't even auto-update itself). I always used IE as my default into Edge came out, and now I'm on Edge Canary which is my default browser. Because Edge Canary works so well (I haven't any issues of crashing, breaking, issues) I use it as my default and don't need to dabble with Edge Dev. I really have no other reason to use any other browser.  

    • leeuniverse's avatar
      leeuniverse
      Copper Contributor
      I hate bloatware too...
      Which is why I'm not asking for any.
  • tomscharbach's avatar
    tomscharbach
    Bronze Contributor

    leeuniverse  A variant of the 80-20 rule applies, to my mind:   A browser should include features/functions wanted/used by 80% of the user base; other features/functions should be handled by flags/extensions. 

    • leeuniverse's avatar
      leeuniverse
      Copper Contributor

      How do you know you wouldn't like/want what I've mentioned above if you hadn't used it?
      And I already said most of the items can be handled by "Settings" (aka Flags).

      I've only mentioned the most important and key things needed that most browsers don't have "all of" but are very enjoyable and make the browser experience better.
      I haven't asked for fancy "extensions" being part of the browser save maybe some options in the last 5 I mentioned. I've already addressed this.

      I mean, do you even know how much more comfortable using a browser is when you can:
      - Double Click the tab to close it, rather than straining for the "x" or right clicking the tab to find the close?
      - Dragging/dropping text or link rather than selecting it and then right clicking, finding the option, etc.?

      I mean, I can go on and on.

      Anyway, I've simply addressed the most important basic browser functions which are found all through various browsers but aren't altogether save in the 2 I've mentioned.
      Like I said, it would be nice to not have to go to China for basic MODERN Browser functions.

       

      And another thing, why do we even need a Chromium Edge if it's just going to be ANOTHER of the Dozen browsers that already exist doing nothing unique and useful?

      I mean, if you want a Clone of Chrome, then why are you here?

      • HotCakeX's avatar
        HotCakeX
        MVP

        How do you know if he hasn't used them already?

        do you know how much uncomfortable and annoying it is if double clicking on tabs were to close them? how many unintentional tab closures would happen, how much it would rage users.

        those things you mentioned are no way basic. the basic is ALREADY inside the Chrome and the new Edge browser. the rest of the highly specific needs can be addressed via extensions. yes that's how important extensions are. the Basic is what is already in Google Chrome, what is already in Edge Spartan which is gradually being shipped to the new Edge insider. other than that is just bloated software that no one wants.

         

        It's Not a clone of chrome.

        Microsoft's plan is to only change the browser core from EdgeHTML to the Chromium engine for better compatibility, nothing else. they have their own browser and set of features. almost everyone want the same feature that old Edge has to come to the new Edge insider, so eventually whatever gets changes is only under-the-hood stuff, the underlying parts. the result is better compatibility and extension support.

        and Microsoft is going to make this Edge browser so perfect and integrate it into their own OS (Windows) so that people won't need to download a 3rd party browser like chrome.

  • leeuniverse 

    Three is a reason why Google chrome is so popular and the number 1 browser. their motto:

    Now more simple, secure, and faster than ever

    pay attention to the word "Simple"

    those things you mentioned are Too Much specific, that's why they come as extensions so that only those who really want them install them on their browsers.

     

    if Microsoft makes the new Edge a bloated heavy browser then people will keep using Google Chrome because it's simpler, faster and gets the job done and also it's debloated.

    • leeuniverse's avatar
      leeuniverse
      Copper Contributor

      Wrong...
      The reason the browser is so popular is:
      1. It's Google (popularity of a product makes a difference)
      2. Extensions (again, lots of support of the browser made a difference)

      3. Tabs (while they weren't the first, they were the most known, that made a difference)
      4. 90% of my requested Features are BASIC Browser functions, not fancy extensions, so you are incorrect in your judgment.  Your thinking is the kind that we shouldn't even be using "Tabs" and a host of other features as default in a browser...  Oh, an Extension can do that.
      5. Further, most of them don't even exist as extensions, some have but are gone, as well having some as extensions instead of part of the browser caused problems, aka more crashes/bloat.
      6. Almost ALL of the features I mention are not "bloatware" and would add nothing to slowing down Edge.
      Did you forget the 360Chrome and Maxthon Browsers HAVE ALL of the features I mention?
      And guess what, they aren't even close to "slow".
      7. Did you also forget that Chrome crashes alot and has FOR YEARS even without so-called "bloat"?

      Bottom line, why do we even need a Chromium Edge if it's just going to be ANOTHER of the Dozen browsers that already exist and doesn't do anything actually useful?

      I mean, if you want a Clone of Chrome, then why are you here?


      Thanks

      • dftf-wip's avatar
        dftf-wip
        Iron Contributor
        Advice aside, I'm a little confused how you say "if you want a clone of Chrome, then why are you here" and "360Chrome and Maxthon HAVE ALL of the features I mention".

        So... why not just use those browsers if you're happier with their feature-sets? Why make Edge a clone of either of those, when both of those already exist?

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