Why Do We Encourage Our Clients to Use Microsoft Edge Over Google Chrome?

Since releasing in 2008, Google steadily captured more and more of the internet browser global market share, taking the No. 1 spot in 2013 by surpassing Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

Featuring a faster browsing experience and a plethora of extra features that included tabs, extensions, plugins and add-ons, Chrome changed how we browsed the internet.

However, when Microsoft released Edge in 2020, which is built on the open-source web browser project Chromium — the same one Google uses for Chrome — people noticed Edge was a vastly different experience than Internet Explorer.

Edge introduced vertical tabs, immersive reader, collections and more, not to mention a faster browsing experience than Chrome, which is known to use a considerable amount of RAM, impacting computers running with limited memory.

Chrome still holds the top spot as the world’s most popular browser, but Edge has captured 5% of the global market over the past four years, recently surpassing Mozilla Firefox.

Despite Chrome’s popularity, we encourage our clients to use Edge for a few reasons.

Better Integration with Microsoft 365

Because Microsoft develops both Microsoft 365 and Edge, Edge integrates with Microsoft 365 much better than Chrome.

For a combination of security and convenience, we implement single sign-on for several web-based applications our clients use. Once they log in to their 365 account, they can access other applications, eliminating the need to remember multiple passwords and sign in multiple times.

As a managed service provider, our goal is to keep our clients’ data safe, but we also recognize that entering multiple passwords every day is inconvenient.

Single sign-on is the happy medium between security and convenience, and Edge’s integration with 365 is much more seamless.

While Chrome does offer an extension for single sign-on with Microsoft 365, we’ve found it to be less reliable compared to using Edge. We recommend making a registry change instead for a more stable experience, though it involves some advanced technical steps during implementation.

Similar to Chrome, but Uses Less Resources

As mentioned earlier, Edge runs on Chromium, which means it acts similarly to Chrome. However, RAM usage tests concluded Edge used less memory. With 60 tabs opened, Chrome used 3.7 GB of RAM compared to 2.9 GB for Edge.

While clients on newer computers might not notice a difference, clients using older computers could notice a significant difference in performance.

As computers age, it takes more resources to use the same programs, so a 3-year-old computer will not run any internet browser as efficiently as a new computer.

Edge also has many of the same features Chrome has had for years, including synchronization across devices, bookmarks (called favorites in Edge), browser history, extensions, private browsing and privacy settings.

AI Integration

Artificial intelligence (AI) grew in popularity in 2023, and all the big names in tech wanted a piece of that pie.

Shortly after OpenAI released ChatGPT in November 2022, Microsoft redesigned its search platform Bing and integrated a similar AI tool.

The nice thing about Copilot is that it doesn’t require you to sign up for the service like ChatGPT does. It’s automatically included with Microsoft 365 E3, E5, A3 or A5 for faculty, Business Standard or Business premium licenses at no extra cost.

Copilot also protects your personal and company data so even Microsoft does not have access to the information you send. For example, if you wanted to make a table with sales numbers, Microsoft would not have access to that information.

ChatGPT, on the other hand, very explicitly states to be careful about sending any personal or private information, as it is not protected. It’s important to note you should be careful about whatever information you send to an AI tool, but just know Microsoft has implemented extra security features geared toward businesses.

Google has its own version of AI called Gemini, but the security measures are not as robust as Microsoft’s, and it requires you to opt in to use the service.

Both Edge and Chrome are great browsers that will offer superb experiences. In our opinion, Edge’s integration with Microsoft 365, faster response times and AI integration offer a better user experience.

Learn More About Microsoft Edge

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