Microsoft Accelerates Edge's Release Cycle to Every Four Weeks

Taking a page from Google’s book, Microsoft is speeding up the release schedule for its Edge browser and will issue updates every four weeks instead of six weeks, the company announced Friday (3-12-21).

If reading that gave you déjà vu, that might be because Google issued a similar announcement last week in which it stated that it’s accelerating Chrome’s release cycle to - you guessed it - every four weeks instead of six weeks starting in Q3 2021.

“As contributors to the Chromium project, we look forward to the new 4-week major release cycle cadence that Google announced to help deliver that innovation to our customers even faster,” Microsoft said in a blog post.

This way, Edge users will gain faster access to Microsoft’s new features and security patches. And since, as of 2020, Edge has been rebuilt in Google’s open-source browser project Chromium, matching its release schedule with Chrome’s makes it easier to keep the two browsers in sync.

The new schedule will go into effect with Edge 94, which is currently slated for a September release. Also following Google’s lead, Microsoft is offering its enterprise customers the option of a longer, more manageable release cycle, which translates to a release every eight weeks along with biweekly security updates for “the most important fixes.” However, the four-week cycle will be the default, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft’s got the right idea if it makes for a more seamless online experience. Collaborating with Google seems to be working out for Edge a lot better than attempting to go toe-to-toe with Chrome did for its predecessor, the beleaguered and often ridiculed Internet Explorer.

Credit: gizmodo.com

Microsoft's Edge Browser Finally Brings Tab Syncing To Everyone

Last October, Microsoft rolled out tab syncing across devices for users in its insider Edge Dev and Canary channels. Tab syncing is not a new thing in browser land; Google Chrome and Apple Safari both offer it. Just load up your browser with tabs and then log into another device and open up the same browser with the same tabs. Now that feature is finally available to anyone who uses Edge, and might make it a compelling reason to switch to Microsoft’s browser.

Edge’s version of tab syncing works nearly identically to Chrome: sign in to your profile, turn on sync, and bam, you’re done. You can also browse as a guest and add multiple profiles, which is especially useful if you use different email addresses on the same computer, but don’t want the same tabs, or even bookmarks, to show up on different accounts. Each account also opens in a new browser window, just like Chrome.

The new feature also syncs your browsing history across devices - any device, whether that’s Windows, macOS, iOS or Android. Again, that’s just like Chrome, but for anyone who has been getting more worried about their privacy using Chrome, these two big features justify an easy switch to Edge.

Sure, Edge doesn’t have the added benefit of Chrome Actions, which let you use the address bar like a command prompt so you don’t have to dig through your browser settings to change something. But Edge is faster on both macOS and Windows than Chrome, according to some of the recent tests, and there are plenty of other features in development. 

Microsoft in beta channels has released numerous updates to privacy, productivity, and performance. Some of the stand-out features include: alerts if a user’s password is found in an online leak; putting inactive tabs to sleep to free up system resources; and auto-filling the date of birth field and vertical tabs. These along with all the other updates are scheduled to roll out to the stable version of Edge the week of January 21.

Edge has also been improving on the privacy front. It wasn’t an ideal browser to use before, because it sent an identifier back to Microsoft’s servers. That should no longer be the case.

Credit: gizmodo.com

Honey Integration Removed From Microsoft Edge

Microsoft appears to be moving to its own coupon tool on Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft recently rolled out tools for Microsoft Edge and Bing to help people save money on the web. One of the new features is Coupons, which automatically scans the web for coupon codes.

This might sound familiar, as the popular extension Honey offers similar functionality and was built into Microsoft Edge on mobile devices. However, it seems that Microsoft is moving away from Honey, replacing it with its own offering on Microsoft Edge beta for Android. Honey has also been replaced on Microsoft Edge on iOS.

The new Coupons feature is already available on Edge on Windows and iOS, and it appears that Microsoft is testing it on Android now.

In a blog post highlighting money-saving features from Microsoft, a footnote reads, "Coupons are currently available in U.S. markets and now available on desktop and iOS. Coming soon to Android."

You will able to use the new Coupons feature on your Android devices running the beta version of Microsoft Edge. Your Android devices running the non-beta version of Microsoft Edge will still see the option to use Honey.

When browsing the web on Microsoft Edge beta Android, you now see a blue tag that prompts you to check out the Coupons feature. These prompts help you save money and are a handy visual indicator to check for codes and deals.

Microsoft is investing time and effort into shopping features for its browser. Between price comparison tools, coupon scanners, and Collections that can be used as wish lists, there are quite a few ways to save money through Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft made sure to roll the features out before Black Friday, which should help save some money over the holidays.

Credit: windowscentral.com

Edge Browser Crashes If You Have Google Set As Default Search

Microsoft’s new Edge browser is randomly crashing when users type into the address bar. The issues appear to be affecting Edge users who have selected Google as the default search engine. Microsoft says it’s aware of the problems and the company’s Edge team is investigating.

Microsoft recommends turning off Search Suggestions in edge://settings/search. This workaround seems to solve the problem if you have Google set as your default search engine.

The Microsoft Edge crashes started at around 7PM EDT, Thursday, 7-30-20 and are affecting macOS and Windows users. It’s not clear why they’re only limited to Google search users in Edge, though.

If you switch to Microsoft’s Bing search engine within Edge, the crashes do not occur.

Credit: The Verge