Google's Chromium-based Edge: We're in the second decade of the 21 century, and it seems impossible to imagine that the Microsoft browser was once in its infancy World Wide Web. The journey from absolute domination to equilibrium and decline has been slow but steady and with heaps of errors, facilitating attacks, and creating problems for competition regulators on two continents.
This week, Microsoft was released its first public beta browser Microsoft Edge based on open source Chromium code.
If history can teach us, Microsoft's chances of success are few.
Let's remember the story:
1995: Microsoft releases it Internet Explorer with the first OEM version of Windows 95, προωθώντας τον browser σε εκατοντάδες millions υπολογιστές μέσα σε λίγα χρόνια. Την έκδοση αυτή ακολουθούν οι εκδόσεις του Internet Explorer για Mac και Linux.
2001: Following a US antitrust court ruling, Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 6 and effectively stops development of the browser for all other platforms outside of Windows.
2004: Mozilla Firefox emerges from the ashes of Netscape and is beginning to gain market share from the increasingly insecure Internet Explorer.
2006: After a series of painful security issues, Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 7, which launches tabbed browsing. However, it fails to prevent the loss of market share.
2008: Google releases it Chrome. The new browser in a few minutes surpasses Firefox as the most popular alternative to Internet Explorer and less than a decade later manages to be the undisputed new browser champion on multiple platforms.
2012: With the release of Windows 8, Microsoft is literally betting on Modern Internet Explorer. The operating system stops developing within two years.
2015: With Windows 10, Microsoft is releasing an entirely new browser, Microsoft Edge, based on a new engine processingand EdgeHTM. Wow!
2019: Microsoft announces that it will stop developing EdgeHTML and will use Google Chromium as the engine for the next version of Edge.
This is the third reboot to build a reliable Microsoft browser in less than a decade. Normally, we could say it's a sign that doesn't inspire too much confidence.
But maybe this time it will be different.
A browser for all platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac) will be able to solve Microsoft's biggest problem, which is that users who do not use Windows 10 do not currently have the ability to run a modern browser from Microsoft. This of course affects the developer community, which develops plugins and addons for browsers running on all systems.
The results for using browsers are terrible. According to the latest statistics from the US Government's Digital Search Program (US Government's Digital Analytics Program), less than 16% of the traffic on Windows 10 computers comes via Microsoft Edge while Internet Explorer has an even greater share of usage.
This was significantly reduced from the 20% that Edge had in Windows 10 to 2017. Meanwhile, Chrome's share of use of Windows 10 is over 60%.
However, allowing computer users to switch browsers and giving them reasons to do so are two different things. And the obstacles to adoption seem to be many and significant.
By retaining the Microsoft Edge trademark instead of completely changing the browser name, Microsoft may have pulled the carpet under its feet. Busy users will have to understand the difference between the old and the new Edge and this is not easy, especially when the alternative is very easy and completely recognizable: You just use Chrome.
Likewise, developers have every right to be skeptical that this time things will be different. Older people who remember how difficult it was to code for Internet Explorer compatibility will probably want to avoid this kind of mess. Those who have not enthusiastically seen any of Microsoft's previous two efforts will no doubt look a little sideways at Redmond.
What can really help Microsoft are the practices Google uses to promote advertisements and its privacy policies. In theory, Microsoft could offer a browser that's a near-perfect clone of Chrome without violating (that much) privacy.
But remember that Microsoft tried it once with the completely unsuccessful ad campaign "Do not get Scroogled."
Maybe this time it will be different. Maybe Google may not react, maybe it will fall asleep… Or maybe there are too many eager consumers ready to help Microsoft achieve its goals.
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That is, we who believe that in the near future, google, microsoft and facebook will become one, are we risk takers? ;)