Microsoft Touts More Performance Improvements in Edge

For the third time this year, Microsoft is touting the performance improvements its made to the Edge user interface.

“Microsoft Edge is continuing to blaze a trail toward an even faster and more responsive browser UI, and through a cumulation of efforts of the past few months, we have reached a major milestone of achieving a global First Contentful Paint (FCP) below 300 ms,” Microsoft’s Lisa Klink writes. “We set this ambitious performance target because industry research shows that waiting longer than 300 to 400ms for the initial content can significantly impact user satisfaction. By meeting this critical threshold, we ensure that the most used browser features appear almost instantly, letting you engage with the content sooner.”

The measurement Klink references describes “how quickly the various feature UIs of Microsoft Edge visually load,” or what I’d call responsiveness. Apparently, a score below 300 ms means that content is loading quickly enough in the browser that the user notices and appreciates it.

Microsoft first discussed how it was moving Edge to a more responsive user interface in May 2024, and it provide two updates to that work this year, in February and May. Since that last update, the firm has reduced load times by an average of 40 percent across 13 browser features, with the most recent changes coming to settings, Read aloud, Split screen, and Workspaces. In the coming months, it promises similar improvements across Print preview, Extensions, and other features.