Microsoft has a chequered past with its browsers with the much maligned Internet Explorer, which has seen it lose out to the likes of Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox.
The debut of the Edge browser with Windows 10 was meant to solve that, and while Edge is much improved upon Internet Explorer it has yet to really win the attention of browser aficionados.
Microsoft looks to be moving to change that with the potential creation of an Insiders tester program for Edge, according to a tweet by Twitter user Brad Sims which shows a screenshot of an email to Bing Insider participants that Microsoft wants to gauge interest in setting up an Edge Insiders program.
Looks like Microsoft is going to launch an Edge Insider program pic.twitter.com/M5o5bg19WC
— Brad Sams (@bdsams) September 15, 2017
Such a testing program could see updates pushed out to Edge separately from the Windows 10 updates they are usually bundled into, which could mean more features, fixes and streamlining added to Edge far more regularly that they currently are. However, this is just speculation as Microsoft has yet to properly create an Edge Insiders program.
The Redmond company has also moved to defend how slowly extensions are made available for the Edge browser, with only a little over 70 extensions available through the Windows Store.
While people have become frustrated at the lack of extensions, Colleen Williams, senior program manager at the Edge division, noted that Microsoft takes its time to prevent dodgy extensions from finding their way into Edge.
“Poorly written or even malicious add-ons for browsers remain a potential source of privacy, security, reliability and performance issues, even today. We want users to be confident that they can trust extensions in Microsoft to operate as expected,” she said.
Whether Microsoft moves to make the approval and rollout of extensions faster after acknowledging that it’s not the fastest will have to be seen; Redmond is just as likely to stick with its current pace in order to avoid a backlash if it allows a malicious extension to slip through the net.
Related: Best web browsers
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
