Forum Discussion
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.
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.
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.
WolfIcefang I think the value of Edge and Bing are more clear when evaluated not only as individual revenue-generating products, but also as infrastructure for Microsoft's wider cloud, enterprise and consumer services. New features as well as integration within/across platforms and work/life activities are all dependent on Microsoft control over their own browser and search engine. The decision to base Edge on Chromium was brilliant because it allows Microsoft to develop features important to it's own ecosystem on top of an open-source browser engine that already enjoys the broadest compatibility and support.
The new Microsoft Search functionality is a good example of cross-domain integration. Information can be surfaced from work domains and integrated with search results from the Web and your local device. I'm also making great use of the new multi-user profile capability. I run a personal browser session along with multiple Edge profiles authenticating to client domains. These kinds of features would be a nightmare if not impossible to implement and support in someone else's browser or search engine.
BTW, in my experience, Bing caught up with Google search 5 or 6 years ago. I've been using Bing as my default search engine ever since. With the new fast, stable, compatible and feature-rich Edge on my PC and Android Edge on my mobile devices over the last 7-8 months, Chrome and Firefox are rarely used anymore.
Edit: Non-substantive grammar/clarity improvements.
WolfIcefang I think the value of Edge and Bing are more clear when evaluated not only as individual revenue-generating products, but also as infrastructure for Microsoft's wider cloud, enterprise and consumer services. New features as well as integration within/across platforms and work/life activities are all dependent on Microsoft control over their own browser and search engine. The decision to base Edge on Chromium was brilliant because it allows Microsoft to develop features important to it's own ecosystem on top of an open-source browser engine that already enjoys the broadest compatibility and support.
The new Microsoft Search functionality is a good example of cross-domain integration. Information can be surfaced from work domains and integrated with search results from the Web and your local device. I'm also making great use of the new multi-user profile capability. I run a personal browser session along with multiple Edge profiles authenticating to client domains. These kinds of features would be a nightmare if not impossible to implement and support in someone else's browser or search engine.
BTW, in my experience, Bing caught up with Google search 5 or 6 years ago. I've been using Bing as my default search engine ever since. With the new fast, stable, compatible and feature-rich Edge on my PC and Android Edge on my mobile devices over the last 7-8 months, Chrome and Firefox are rarely used anymore.
Edit: Non-substantive grammar/clarity improvements.
- I think switching to Chromium was a good decision, now not 1 company but 2 are working on it. For Edge that's all just under the hood stuff, they aren't things normal users see or even need to know.
the user interface is the most important thing here, that's why the new Edge needs to be more like old Edge in terms of its unique functionalities.
now that both Google chrome and Microsoft Edge use the same browser engine, the competition is about who makes the best User Interface and who can implement better unique features.
it has also benefits for extension developers since they don't have to write it for both EdgeHTML and Chromium.- While I agree with everything you're saying, you haven't really answered my question. All of the reasons you've given here are altruistic (that is, morally good.) Two major companies working on optimizations, a better user interface, more features, and less work for extension developers are all "nice" things to have, but they aren't easy to monetize. I guess both Microsoft and Google need fast browsers for their business software suites to run on, so maybe I was being too cynical about it in this post.
- Yeah that's true as well, Microsoft wanted, or better say, deserved a great browser like Edge, so they developed it. and that will give them back their lost browser market share. so even though Edge is a freeware but I think having a grip on market is profitable 🙂
- Hey **bleep** **bleep**, are you really getting on the chromium, cause I thought you had been on my ayrr for a few years now, oh Sorry did I say ayrr. I meant Firefox, like remember how I'd make foxes on fire, when I'd make them sleep quick, ay ay how deemann, ahh yeah great team you guys where, yes I said where and I meant it. But ay hot cakes, how's kessik feeling from the other nights khaabeet session, are the floor boards still wet. Or did little deb clean it all outta you. If only you had a clue how big and bad Firefox will be very soon, like no one will even see or know what happen to chromium,, oh I also noticed there was an Eddie you where having secret codes with aswell, could that be the one and only Eddie aoun, the one you and your bros call kherrouyee cause yoqus say his always sh...t. in his pants. Oh please hotcakes, qi need your advice on this one. Do I chose the ballistic tips or the hollow points. Please get back to me, and if it's too late or you aren't able to reach my aayyrr just come to the garage, by the way did you well Paul about the 2 pitbull pups you sold just to get on the bags and get an ovaries check from me, did you also tell him how you would get Really naughty when youq would hit the pipe aswell, hey it's all good, il be making things easier, how bout we just come out and show them how hard you have been working when you have me over, I understand your blind but is zubbree that big that it's blocking you from seeing me record myself bending you over or is it because you like to remind me that your ex Ellie and his little zubboora brother that got you press, yeah how you tell me that they are watching and to show them how there Louie should be getting the good ol chromium. La neek the chromium le teelih min teezik, feel free to reply here or on my device that qyou have been texting non stop recently. How's the dsp going how's Ray Ray, how blowass story coming round this time for yous, little bit different dont you say. Hmmmm anyway look how's this, either give me my 2 cubs back asap so I don't put yous all away, or maybe we can have an open one as you've made claims and I get to khabbiit you and deb at the same time and never stay there, as long as you go tomorrow and do clear or cls or what ever on the system. And there's always the last option and we will leave that for a different blog.
Never trust a woman who doesn't trust or respect herself, and never take back something that was never yours to begin with, Harry's a hell of drug.
