Microsoft Edge Actively Discourages Users From Chrome & Firefox
The same feature is also projected to arrive on devices powered by Windows 10 Mobile, as Edge is designed as a universal app that can work on all Windows 10 devices, including PCs, tablets, and smartphones.
By default, most browsers, including Microsoft’s new Edge browser, built into Windows 10, do not send such requests, meaning websites are free to collect information about you.
In the U.S., Windows 10 has a bigger lead than worldwide, but it’s not as pronounced as the United Kingdom with a 5.64 per cent market share compared to 4.3 per cent which Windows 7 managed (and 1.16 per cent for Windows 8).
The message only showed up the first time I searched for “chrome” and “firefox” in Edge, as I was just starting to get comfortable on the new Acer Aspire One Cloudbook 11.
The numbers themselves were not as important as the trend they illustrated: Down, even as more people adopt Windows 10. However, that had fallen to 14.1 per cent on the last day of August. For a company with many wars to fight in the rapidly changing technology industry, it comes as a sad development for Microsoft that Edge is not being used widely. That meant it had to be willing to take heat for the move from customers as well as from rival Mozilla, whose CEO blasted the switch as, “Throw[ing] away the choice your customers have made about the Internet experience they want, and replac[ing] it with the Internet experience Microsoft wants them to have”. But Microsoft is already exploring new ways to convert not just IE users to Edge, but those who prefer Chrome and Firefox as well. Neither did “opera”, which is another non-Microsoft browser.
It’s possible to interpret the small increase in Edge’s user share (estimated by Net Applications) as a trend that will continue as more mainstream Windows users adopt 10.