Internet Explorer is dead. Long live Microsoft Edge.
The consumer electronics firm has revealed its brand new web browser, Microsoft Edge, which will feature on the soon-to-be-released operating system, Windows 10.
Microsoft had previously announced plans to launch a new browser under the name ‘Project Spartan’ that, it claimed, would be built for the “next generation of web” and boast a “modern architecture and service model for Windows as a service”.
The company’s corporate vice-president of operating systems, Joe Belfiore, this morning officially unveiled Project Spartan to be Edge at its Build 2015 developer conference in San Francisco. The system will feature integration with Microsoft’s voice recognition software, Cortana, and promises to offer developers better ‘discoverability’ of their apps, as well as plans for future extensibility with JavaScript and HTML.
Perhaps the most eye-catching feature of the new browser, however, is that it allows users to write directly on webpages and share their mark-ups with others. Click below to view a demonstration video posted to YouTube.
Since the launch, Kyle Alden, who manages Internet Explorer’s official blog, has taken to Twitter to reveal the logo for Edge, which, as you can see, doesn’t deviate too much from its predecessor.
New kid on the block. pic.twitter.com/7EzMjxUrFf
— Kyle Pflug (@kylealden) April 29, 2015
Edge replaces the much-maligned Internet Explorer after 20 years of it being both Windows’ default browser, and the bugbear of web enthusiasts everywhere.
Despite its awful reputation, stemming from issues of malware, numerous bugs, unappealing user interface and slowness, IE still remains the second-most used browser globally, with recent figures showing it accounts for more than 20pc of the world’s used browsers. First place is Chrome with 46pc.
