Recently, Microsoft updated their Edge browser and changed it to a Chromium-based design, which seems to have paid off. According to the latest numbers, Microsoft Edge has 7.6 percent of the desktop browser market share in March. It has overtaken Firefox, which is sitting at about 7.2 percent of the market.
Read: Vodacom announces new, lower data prices for bundles
As expected, Chrome still has the bulk of the market cornered – it still has 68.5 percent market share. Considering that this new version of Edge is only a couple of months old, it is a good turnaround for the Windows default browser.
Being the default browser on Windows certainly helps, and Microsoft Edge definitely has a lot better of a reputation compared to the much-maligned Internet Explorer did for a long time.
The Chromium-based version of Edge has removed many of the shortcomings that developers had been complaining about with regards to Microsoft’s own engine run older version. Some of the big advantages of the new version include better speed, a wider range of available extensions and better compatibility. Perhaps the new version could be the browser that you use daily, not just the one you use to download other browsers.
As you would expect, Microsoft Edge does try to entice users to take up some of Microsoft’s other services. It is one of the main objectives of having a standalone browser, although convincing people to use Bing is perhaps a step too far.
Having another major player using Google’s Chromium engine moves us closer to a future were all sites work well, regardless of platform. Developers will most likely gravitate towards building sites to be optimised for Chromium, rather than building it for Chromium as well as all other browsers. Firefox and Safari will come under pressure with regards to website support.
