Switching from Chrome to Edge

I think I'm ready to switch my primary web browser operations from Chrome to Edge. Chrome has frequent problems playing the audio on websites like Youtube and Pandora. Edge formats pages like Facebook better on a high zoom, and it's also faster.

I've been using Chrome since it launched in 2008, because it was far better than IE and Firefox. But I feel Microsoft has made the comeback.

Thoughts?

I'd use anything but Edge. Firefox, Opera, Vivaldi, Slepneir, or any of the other browsers out there before I'd used Edge.

I’ve seen this happening more often recently. Edge is starting to gain converts because of its speed and rendering. Now that it has added a number of useful extensions, and since its memory footprint is smaller than Chrome and Firefox, people are curious.

I’ve considered using it myself, except that it saves everything you type and sends it to Microsoft. As a privacy advocate, I just can’t get behind that. I know other browsers share bits of data, but Edge tosses almost all of it into the mix.

Do you have evidence that MS does that? That should be a major scandal if true.

They say they do: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy

Microsoft Edge has Cortana as its search companion, too, and so all of that data is submitted by Cortana as well:
https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-speech-inking-typing-and-privacy-faq
https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-cortana-and-privacy

They insist that they anonymize it, but vast amounts of data is collected.

I use Firefox because switching to Chrome would take effort and I don't want to make that effort unless Firefox starts being terrible, which it isn't.

Edge though? Not after what IE6 did, no way. Using Edge after IE6 was a thing would be like taking back an abusive partner after they're all "I'm sorry, I've changed! I promise I'll never hurt you again." Once you fuck something, you can't unfuck it.

It's opt-in. You left out that part. From your link:

You don't think Google does this (x1000) from Chrome and youtube (regardless of the browser)?

I think at this point MS has their popularity problem solved so exploits are targeting Chrome and other browsers as much as theirs. It's not a bad idea to switch back.

It's good that they've changed it, then. It used to be opt-out. Still, Google takes aggregate information and assembles it to create a profile. I don't like that, either. The difference is that Microsoft has all of my personal data that sits on my computer, has tied it to a Microsoft ID and unless I get rid of Windows entirely, that stays with me, and they use that for everything, including ads in the OS itself. I can get rid of Google. Getting rid of Microsoft is far more difficult.

Microsoft has all of your personal data that sits on your computer?

They could if they want. Microsoft Windows 10, like previous versions, indexes all of your data. They claim they don't read it without cause, and that they anonymize it, but it doesn't take much to turn anonymized data into relevant data, and then relevant data into a profile for specific users. The ability is already there, and up until recently, they openly stated that they had access to your personal files, emails, and other documents, as well as behavioral patterns when using the OS. For the longest time, this was all opt-out, and even then they could still access it if they felt it was necessary. Only recently has it apparently become opt-in.

What do you think an index is?

Do you have a quote for the open statement, "...they had access to your personal files, emails, and other documents, as well as behavioral patterns when using the OS."

Google uses text in your emails to tailor ads to the content of your email. I think this is what you're talking about. This was creepy and I think they stopped. Here it is, they stopped last year.

All software designers want feedback on how their software is used. If you opt into this it helps design more useful features and not waste time on those no one uses.

An index is a small table that allows quick access to large tracts of data, much like the index in the back of a book. This way when you type in the search bar, "fig newton," your computer doesn't take 30 minutes to an hour to parse through all files' contents looking for "fig newton." This isn't something that MS has in their database for your machine.

While MS (and any other piece of software you install on your machine) could have malware that forwards data to a remote server, this would be detected at some point, the software and author exposed, and all hell would break loose (much like the facebook controversy today). Which software you choose to use should be chosen based on the trustworthiness of the source. I bet you've download lots of stuff from unsavory servers that could be riddled with malware. MS isn't in business to do this.

Ugh, nevermind.

Just a head's up. MS Edge went through a major upgrade. It's quite improved. Page loading is twice as fast as Chrome for ad intensive sites. Even WF seems nicer. It's version "83.*" on my win 10 machine. Not sure when it was released but I think within the last week. Give it another try.

ETA: I've been using chrome up until now and tried edge periodically. Never found it compelling enough to switch.

The other nice thing is it seems to use less system resources when it's idle than Chrome does.

Was using ublock ad-blocking software on chrome. I always felt uneasy about it skimming my browser (and suspect it might be feeding profit oriented information to others). It ported over to edge and is functional, although there are gaps in the pages where ads would have been. Turning it off, though, ads seem less intrusive than in Chrome.

Also there's a humdinger "immersive reading" feature that strips all unnecessary content from pages including ads.

I use Edge for work and only for work. Everything else is either Firefox, Chrome, or Safari.

Do I understand correctly that Edge is still a Chromium build?

If you’re on Windows 10, it probably is. If you’re on an older version it’s not.

It states it's using it. Are people critical of chromium? What is it? Some sort of framework?

It's the rendering engine at the heart of the web browser. Almost every browser out there, except Firefox, uses it. This has its positives and negatives. The positive is that every web site will look the same on a computer, regardless of the browser used (the exception being Firefox), and it makes it easier to design websites. The negatives are that every browser out there (except for Firefox) has the same flaws. It might also slow down innovation in browser development.

Seriously? Why not?

Because MS is trying to push everyone to Win10. The reasons some Win10 versions aren't running the Chromium version of Edge has to do with the chips in your machine. Certain processors no longer get certain updates, and MS hasn't been entirely clear as to which ones won't be getting it.

Hm. But that would mean they've basically built two completely different browsers? Just in order to make one of them artificially worse?

Nah. They've just stopped updating the old version of Edge.

Ah ok. Cheers. I didn't realise they used to have a different engine.

Uh oh

Google Chrome users may have been impacted by a massive spying campaign

It's Google, it's spying on you

Titanic victims may have died from hypothermia and excessive dihydrogen monoxide intake

Only in this case, it wasn't Google, it was third parties offering malware extensions in Google's underregulated shop.

Edge is fine except I can’t figure out how to switch my search engine to google.

If you walk down a dark alley in the worst part of town and get mugged by a space alien, you don't get to cry surprise at being mugged just because the guy had five eyes and a ZXTT' / AGBLOOP 2020 bumper sticker.

Um. Ok. I think I would still find it noteworthy.

google it.

How to make Google default search engine on edge?
Steps

1. Open Microsoft Edge.
2. At the top right, click More actions (...) > Settings.
3. On the left, click Privacy and Services. ...
4. Scroll to the bottom and click Address bar.
5. In the “Search engine used in the address bar” drop-down, select Google.