Everyone Needs the New Microsoft Edge (Premium)

I know, it’s a bit early. But I’m calling it: Basing the new Edge on Chromium is the best decision that Microsoft’s made in years. This is a browser that everyone will want to use. Even those who are firmly invested in Google’s ecosystems.

With 66 percent usage share on desktop and 63 percent share on mobile, Google Chrome is the dominant web browser today. That desktop usage is particularly impressive since Chrome is not the default browser on either of the dominant PC platforms, Windows and Mac. This means that most desktop users are actually using the built-in browser only once, to install Chrome.

Think about how incredible that is. The power of the default is so strong that Microsoft was previously found guilty of product bundling when it first included Internet Explorer in Windows, way back during a time in which PCs were essentially the only personal computing platform of note. But today, most Windows (and probably Mac users, too) barely even realize that Microsoft makes a browser. They go to the trouble of finding, downloading, installing, and then configuring Chrome instead.

Why do they do that?

They do it because Chrome is literally the best web browser available today. Yeah, yeah. You may disagree, may prefer Firefox, or Opera, or … whatever. No matter: As noted, fully two-thirds of all web browsing, desktop and mobile alike, occurs via Chrome. It’s the best.

That said, Chrome isn’t perfect. As a Google product, Chrome is designed as a front-end for the search giant’s core product, which no, isn’t search. It’s advertising. And every move you make—every site you load, every second of porn you watch—is tracked by Google, collated into a living, breathing digital representation of you as a consumer, and sold to advertisers so that they can better appeal to that hand you have on your wallet.

Most consumers at least vaguely understand this. Many have experienced that creepy “Google effect” thing where you are browsing or searching on one site and then some product related to what you were previously viewing mysteriously appears on another, completely unrelated site. A great many of these users have probably given up on even worrying about this. I’ve even heard from some who claim to prefer the targeted ads; after all, maybe one of them will actually be interesting to them.

For the love of God, people.

What if there were a version of Chrome that was literally stripped of all the Google tracking services, a browser that looked, worked, and performed exactly look Chrome, but didn’t follow you around the Internet like some lonely dog that’s been trapped in a house alone for the day?  What if there was a version of Chrome that provided the same benefits of Chrome—its stellar compatibility with web standards, its market-leading performance, its support for PWAs and other web apps, and its cross-platform sync of bookmarks, passwords, and other data—while actually respected your privacy? I mean. Can you even imagine such a thing?

The new Microsoft Edge is that browser.

And while the new Edge is still very much in an early pre-release state, and not something that I would today recommend to my wife, my brother, or any other normal, non-technical human being, the day in which I can do so is quickly coming. But even at this early time, I can already see what Microsoft has done—to remove the bad Google bits and replace them with its own, more trustworthy alternatives—and I can see the future quite clearly. The new Edge is Chrome, minus the Google crap. This is useful. This is valuable. This is something we all need. All of us.

Microsoft’s decision to adopt Chromium—the open source basis for Chrome—was made on sound technical thinking. But it is Microsoft’s pure intentions here that are perhaps even more important. After all, which of these companies is more trustworthy? Seriously. Like there’s any debate to be had there.

So here it is, the new Edge, replacing the old Chrome. Syncing through your Microsoft account. Offering up a professionally-made, carefully curated web experience that will eventually work across all supported Windows versions, the Mac, and, if I’m understanding an interaction I had recently with Microsoft, even Linux someday. It’s available on mobile, of course, and once the new desktop version is complete, you’ll be able to sync all of your data—securely and with no worries of tracking—between the two.

The new Edge is literally a no-brainer. It’s even good for Google fans: You can continue taking advantage of Google’s services, which are often excellent. But you won’t be tracked as much since your account sync will go through Microsoft, not Google. (You will still want to sign-in with your Google account while using most Google services, of course. This works fine in the new Edge.)

Choosing the new Edge over Chrome is obvious no matter who you are. It’s what we’ve all secretly always wanted. The good bits without the bad.

This is so obvious it almost doesn’t bear explaining, beyond the fact that the earliest Insider builds of the new Edge now suggest that Microsoft is very much going to pull this off.

But I’m going to take this a step further.

Let’s think for a moment about what I’m calling the EdgeBook, a Chromebook-like laptop that is based on the new Edge. In the past, Microsoft has tried various attempts at simplifying Windows to compete better with simpler, legacy-free mobile systems—Windows RT and Windows 10 S/S mode being the most obvious examples—but each of these efforts has fallen flat for various reasons. With the new Chromium-based Edge, however, Microsoft has the basis of a system that can compete in the same part of the market in which Chromebooks are now seeing great success.

And it’s not the low-end of the market. It’s education, of course. But it’s also business, where a simple, easily-manageable system is of equal worth. And it’s good for individuals of all kinds: In this era of mobile computing, a full-sized laptop with a hardware keyboard and a big screen is only required sometimes by many. Why wouldn’t you choose something that worked great but was more secure and protected your privacy?

This EdgeBook, which could be the logical conclusion of the Windows Lite/Lite OS/Core OS rumors we’ve been hearing about for years, isn’t just a Chromebook clone. Instead, it is to Chromebooks what the new Edge is to Chrome: A version of that system that is stripped of all the Google nonsense. A version that uses your trusted Microsoft account—or, soon, Azure Active Directory—account for sync. A Chromebook that would actually appeal to schools, businesses, and individuals who are, perhaps, a bit leery of Google’s intentions. I think that’s most of them, by the way.

I don’t know that Microsoft will call this new platform Edge OS, nor do I know that EdgeBook will be a real brand of any kind. But these products are coming, no matter the name. And the reason they will be viable is the same reason that new Edge makes tons of sense for all kinds of users.

I’ve already switched from Chrome to the new Edge. And I think this future is more than a possibility. It’s something we collectively need to work toward as a community as Microsoft completes its work on the new Edge.

Exciting? You bet it is.