We're Listening!

[Elliot Kirk]

Greetings Microsoft Edge Insiders!

Let us start off by saying, welcome to the Microsoft Edge Insider community! We’re so excited to have you here, and we can’t wait to start learning from you. If you haven’t read our Welcome to the Microsoft Edge Insider community article yet, we recommend starting there. It has a bunch of great information on how we got here and where we’re heading.

Our mission:
Our mission is to create a thriving community of valuable Insiders, like you, so we can closely listen and learn how Microsoft Edge can be better. We believe that having open, honest, and continued conversations with our Insider community is a great way to build a close relationship with our users.

Why do all of this? Because we want to build a browser that’s deeply grounded in your needs. Your voice is the most important piece of helping us build a better Microsoft Edge. The feedback you provide leads to meaningful conversations that may ultimately produce the new features, bug fixes, and other improvements that matter the most to you. Listening is just the beginning for us. Our true goal is to build Microsoft Edge with the voice of the Insider community as our guiding light.

Community voice

When we announced the next version of Microsoft Edge back in December, we asked a simple question: If you could change one thing about the web, what would it be?

We were completely humbled by the over 40k comments you’ve shared with us. That’s a whole lot of ideas. Thank you!

You tell us that you love some things about the current Microsoft Edge browser, like the smooth scrolling experience, our Fluent Design and the precision touchpad, and you hope we’ll bring those things forward into the next version too.

Some of you are frustrated with the way that sites render so differently depending on the browser you're using to view them. You also tell us that Web Standards are on the top of your mind. We hear that you want all browsers to adopt the same standards. We hear from some of you web developers that you want new capabilities added to the web platform; whether that be in CSS, HTML or JavaScript. Another top request is an improved dev tools experience.

We hear that you have strong feelings about online advertising. Some of you wish ads that pop-up would just disappear and the same for auto-playing ads. While others feel a strong desire to remove or fundamentally change how online advertising works on the web. There is concern how these advertisements enable sites to track you as you browse which feels "creepy" and "invasive."

The overwhelming majority of comments (we’re talking thousands of messages) that we have read wish for a change in the fundamental attributes of the web. Make it faster, safer, more reliable and more private. You want your browsers to have smaller memory footprints, lower battery consumption, higher rendering speed and better stability. We agree with you wholeheartedly! The attributes that you say matter most in your browsing experience are performance, privacy, and reliability. So that is where we are starting.

We are focusing on delivering outstanding fundamentals. Speed, stability, accessibility, compatibility, security, and privacy are always top of mind for us. We are using your comments and suggestions to guide us while we are getting the new Microsoft Edge ready for its debut.

What’s next?
In the meantime, jump in, download the Microsoft Edge Insider Channels, and let us know what you think. What’s working well? Where do we need to improve? Over time, we hope to build healthy engagement and feedback loops with our community members.

We’re also mindful that our users have preferred ways to engage with us. Whether you view the latest information on the Microsoft Edge Insider website, enjoy direct discussions on our forum, need a personal support assistant via help (F1), share your feedback and suggestions via the smiley face, or just want to give us a shout on Twitter, we’re always listening and looking for ways to reach out wherever our users feel most comfortable and prefer to talk to us. We’re all ears!

Thank you for being here. We look forward to listening and engaging with you.

-The Microsoft Edge Team-

[#2]

Looks like the translation didn't kick in so I'm just gonna put this here:

"
I am a convinced user of 'Edge Canary' but I just wish I could make it my default application ... how to do it? the option is disabled in canary settings. : sad:

an idea?

Thanks ... any help will be appreciated.
"

[#3]

@alveys 

Spoiler

---

@alveys wrote:

Je suis un utilisateur convaincu de 'Edge Canary' mais je voudrais juste pouvoir en faire mon application par défaut... comment faire? l'option est désactivée dans les paramètres de canary. 

une idée? 

Merci... toute aide sera appréciée.

---

Hi, you can easily do it (set Edge as your default browser) from the Windows 10 settings => Apps => Default apps

[#4]

Sometime around the month of June 2021, in Edge everytime we open a link to a pdf it opens up in a Edge tab. Which is fine, but at the top it indicates "Set Microsoft Edge as the default applications for reading PDF files?" with the options of "Set as Default" or "X" to close. How can we disable just this message from coming up so users won't accidentally hit "Set as Default"?

[#5]

Thank you Edge team. This is such a good chromium web browser. I sent feedback via Edge and did get emails but cannot reply to see how the team is doing to fix the issues. Edge crashes unexpectedly while in the in-private mode, etc.

[#6]

I just found out another manipulative and privacy invasive strategy that the edge team adopts:
Even if you change your search engine to google search, when you open an "incognito tab", microsoft adds a privacy invasive "search privately with bing" that does not respect the default search engine, and does not allow users to customize with a service of their choice.

[#7]

Hello @KeenBowl, I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish going into "incognito mode." That has nothing to do with masking your identity online. All it does is remove evidence of your online activity from the computer you were on. Also, if you're concerned about privacy, Google search is the worst engine to use. Google's business plan is to take all your information and sell it to others. When you use anything Google, YOU are the product. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think that Microsoft is in the business of mining your information and selling it to others. The most secure search engine is Duck Duck Go, and it is selectable in Edge's settings page. Finally, on the incognito page, if you search in the URL window instead of the search window, it will select your chosen search engine.

Regards,

Dan

[#8]

I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish going into "incognito mode.":

I'm trying to "remove evidence of your online activity from the computer i'm on".

Regardless of what I'm trying to do, what i definitely think is intentionally dishonest coming from the edge engineering team is to disrespect user's choice by pushing dark manipulative UI patterns onto unsuspecting users.

THe edge team is doing this with bing search in the sidebar, with all sorts of places that use search, and all sorts of user preferences that try to disable and replace microsoft services and microsoft data collection.

Meanwhile, the difference between google and microsoft is that google literally was founded on the principle of not being evil.

"I don't think that Microsoft is in the business of mining your information and selling it to others"
Microsoft is literally trying to get into that business right now with bing, edge, and all sorts of tracking and privacy violating products. One of the worst in that regard is vscode+github. It collects user's data, and sell's it to others. Linkedin collects user's data, and sell's it to others in the form of ads. Windows 10 and Windows 11 collects user's data, and sell's it to others in the form of ads and "suggestions". And on top of that, microsoft services are designed to make it intentionally hard to enforce user's choices of using other products, in the form of repeated violation's of preferences, and installed software.

[#9]

An answer me, how is the microsoft edge team trying to improve privacy while at the same time sharing everything with bing, pinterest, linkedin and other services that are notoriously known for being spammy, and privacy invasive?
Literally microsoft edge is the most privacy invasive browser in the market right now. At least google does not pretend to care about privacy, while microsoft is literally lying to user's, saying something and doing the other thing.

[#10]

Interesting you should say, "At least google does not pretend to care about privacy...." because I saw a tweet yesterday saying exactly that: that they have a moral duty to protect your privacy.

[#11]

@JennyStig 

If you're truly concerned about privacy, focusing on the details will serve you far better than joining in the chorus of ill-informed accusations and conclusions that are so common these days.

On today's ultra-connected Internet, billions are flocking to apps and services that facilitate increasing interconnection as well as syncing across devices and platforms. Furthermore, troubleshooting and reliability at this scale is impossible without at least some anonymous metadata collection.

The idea of returning to the simpler, isolated, and more private Internet of yesterday by complaining/shouting at large corporations is much like the proverbial relieving of oneself into the wind. Businesses are serving an exponentially larger set of customers who are expecting/demanding just the opposite (probably without fully realizing it in many cases, but education is still a more effective antidote).

Getting back to Microsoft Edge, if you push the memes aside for a moment and actually look, you'll see that Edge has an impressive array of settings catering to users who prioritize privacy over interconnectivity. Furthermore, IMO Edge's privacy controls are much easier to access and use as well as being far more powerful compared to Google Chrome for example.

Look beneath the surface to see Microsoft is not pretending. But you'll have to put in the work to take full advantage of Edge (and Windows) privacy features. If you're looking for a simple, private out-of-the-box browser, perhaps Brave, Firefox Focus or using Edge InPrivate Window mode are better options.