“Following” feature in the latest build of Edge/Collections update

Hi all, I thought I’d just make a quick post about a new edge feature that I just noticed in the latest build of Edge. It seems that you are now able to “follow” creators on popular sites like YouTube (and maybe other services, but YouTube is the only one that’s prompted me so far). And once you follow, then Edge will quietly add them to a new following tab named “Following.” Whenever there’s new content from said creator, you get a little notification in the address bar, which opens under the sidebar alongside your manually curated collections.

I’ve always been a little divided on Edge Collections; I mean, I think that it’s an excellent idea, but it also seems somewhat repetitive of functionality that’s already found in Favorites, pinned sites, apps, and arguably at least a dozen other places in Edge and Windows. I use it intermittently (TBH, I’m not big on cataloging favorite websites, I’m a little too ADHD for that). And I’m still not sold on this new Following feature either. I mean, I already follow these creators by subscribing to them on YouTube and I get notifications there when there’s something new to see, so it seems a little redundant to do it again in Edge, just so I get notifications whenever there’s something new to see there, too. However, to play devil’s advocate for a second, if I could consolidate updates from my favorite creators across multiple platforms, including Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, a content website, etc., then I could potentially see the benefit of keep it all synced to my Microsoft account through my browser, so that I can see and consume all those updates in one central place. Kinda reminds me of hubs on Windows Phone back in the day. Oh, wait…

So, what’s the consensus? Was anyone else already aware of this Edge feature? Anyone think it’s amazing, confusing, unnecessary? Discuss!

(Also, what’s the right forum/topic for Edge stuff? I mean, it’s not strictly Windows, but it’s also not entirely Mobile or Cloud, so who knows? So, I just put it in the Microsoft forum under the Microsoft category. Hope that’s OK.)