Microsoft Edge is getting a killer feature Chrome can’t match

Microsoft Border is getting a killer feature Chrome can't match

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Microsoft Edge may have found some other mode to live up to its name and get an edge over Google Chrome. A newly revealed change to the browser shows that Microsoft is because taking a stand against the worst part of the cyberspace: those annoying videos that automatically play on websites. You know, those clips that nobody ever asked for, that make the proverbial tape needle in your brain scratch when they start playing out of nowhere?

This news comes from Techdows, which notes a change in the Canary (read: pre-beta) build of Chromium-based Border. Border has two settings nether Media Autoplay: Allow and Limit, and the new version of the browser shows that the latter is now the default. To endeavour it for yourself, make sure you're on Edge build 91.0.841.0 or higher.

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Limit, equally you may accept surmised, is not the aforementioned equally "block." There was a Cake option, but information technology is at present locked behind a flag you must get-go enable. And it plainly never actually worked correct. That said, this may only be a examination. Beta versions of products oftentimes just bear witness what a company is thinking about doing, not what it volition practice in the long run.

That said, there'due south no reason for Edge to non become more serious about auto-play. If Microsoft rolled out an advertizing entrada trashing Chrome's car-playing videos, information technology would probably be the biggest moment in its current browser's short history.

Meanwhile, as Chrome users know from their daily experiences using Google's web browser, that software offers no such default. Possibly this is because Google is nothing if not a visitor based in online advert. Nobody can say for certain, as Google itself has non given a reason.

This is (evidently) the latest in a series of efforts by Microsoft to peck at Chrome's nearly-monopoly in the browser market. Recently, Edge added vertical tabs for more than economic employ of screen infinite, and its own password managing director too.

That said, Edge currently only has 3.45% of the worldwide browser marketplace (according to statcounter) — while Chrome has 64.xv%. Or to put it another way, Chrome has 18.59 times as much of a wedge of the marketplace every bit Edge. That's a lot of basis to brand up.

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Henry is a senior editor at Tom's Guide covering streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past six-plus years. Prior to joining Tom's Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He'south also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.