Skip to main content

Microsoft defends Edge's poor selection of extensions

Microsoft Edge Browser
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Last year, Microsoft brought third-party extensions to its Edge browser. Since then, only about 70 extensions have been made available for Edge. During roughly the same time period, Google added nearly 10,000 extensions to the Chrome Web Store and that number has been growing ever since. In a recent blog post, Microsoft set out to explain why Edge is so lacking in extensions compared to Google Chrome.

Microsoft’s main argument is of quality vs. quantity. The company says that it wants to ensure that only quality extensions are available for its browser so that it can ensure the user experience is not adversely impacted. The company acknowledges that progress has been slow, but insists that it is important to ensure quality control.

“We have taken a purposefully metered approach as we onboard new extensions,” Microsoft’s Colleen Williams wrote on the company’s blog. “Extensions are one of the most substantial features in a new browser, and we have a high bar for quality. Because extensions interact so closely with the browser, we have been very attuned to the security, performance, and reliability of Microsoft Edge with these extensions enabled.”

There is some merit to Microsoft’s argument, as there are undoubtedly plenty of bad extensions and apps available on the Chrome Store. However, for the most part, the user review system has done a good job of promoting good programs while warning users away from the poor ones. The Chrome Web Store is far from perfect, but it is hardly a wasteland devoid of quality content. In fact, several of the most popular Edge extensions are simply ports of ones which were developed for Chrome.

Microsoft’s browsers, particularly later iterations of Internet Explorer, have been the subject of jokes and ridicule for many years, but the company has taken steps to improve the user experience. By our account, Edge is far from perfect but is superior to IE.  However, those improvements have done little to help Microsoft regain market share. A recent study found that Edge and IE combined only held a market share of little over 21 percent.

We don’t believe that adding more extensions is the magic bullet that will make people flock to Edge, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt the browser’s chances against Chrome and Firefox.

Editors' Recommendations

Eric Brackett
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I found a Chrome extension that makes web browsing bearable again
Google Drive in Chrome on a MacBook.

GDPR cookie consent notices were meant to hand privacy control back to ordinary internet denizens. Instead, they’ve unleashed a tidal wave of deception, with unscrupulous website owners using any means necessary to trick you into letting them harvest your private data for resale and profit.

It wasn’t meant to be like this. But while things might have not gone so well for GDPR, there’s still a way to protect your privacy and banish those annoying pop-ups in one fell swoop. Instead of rage-clicking Accept just to get the damned pop-ups to go away, I’ve found a much better way: the Consent-O-Matic browser extension.

Read more
Google’s answer to Microsoft Copilot is finally here
Generative AI in Google Search.

Google is adding to its AI repertoire with a new plug-in that will serve corporate teams for the not-so-low price of $30 per month. It's called Google Duet, and it allows you to translate your documents into various different Google apps with a click.

The Google Duet assistant is now available after being showcased at the Google I/O developer conference in May. The assistant is compatible with Google's Workspace apps, including Gmail, Drive, Slides, Docs, and others.

Read more
Windows 11 will finally respect your default browser — in Europe
Microsoft Edge appears on a computer screen with plants and a window in the background.

Microsoft makes it easy to change the default browser in Windows 11. That's important if you require special features specific to one of the many web browsers that are available on a PC. Unfortunately, it's not as simple to be rid of Edge entirely.

Microsoft Edge will still load to open some other file types. When opening a link from Windows Settings or other system components, the webpage will load in Edge. That's now about to change, however, according to a recent Windows blog post.

Read more