Microsoft Edge is far from the most popular web browser, but it's has some perks that others don't really have.
During Microsoft Ignite 2022 event with keynote by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft introduced a number of features to the successor of Internet Explorer.
The most notable is the introduction of Workspaces.
Initially in preview, the feature is described as "a shared set of browser tabs that will allow groups to view the same websites and latest working files in one place."
Aimed primarily for workers who work in teams and those who need to collaborate remotely, this feature promises a greater level of efficiency, and is able to help keep all members on the same page (literally).
With Workspaces in Edge, not only that users can share sets of browser tabs across multiple people, they can also have quick access to the same websites and shared files.
The idea here is that, instead of sending someone an email to all the links related to a project, Edge users can simply share a Workspace that contains everything they need to have access to.
With this feature, it's also easier to bring new people into a project.
In order to make everyone see everything at the same time stay on top of what’s happening, the tabs inside Workspace are updated in real-time.
Besides Workspace, Edge is also bringing a number of additions.
According to a blog post Microsoft is also improving the security of the browser.
For example, there is a website typo protection feature, which protects users from websites that prey on typos for much more popular websites. Using this feature, whenever users accidentally mistype a well-known address, Edge can ignore the type and direct them to the intended website instead of loading a potentially dangerous page.
The next security feature, is an added enhanced security mode, which helps reduce the risk of attack by disabling just-in-time JavaScript compilation on websites users visit less frequently.
According to a blog post, users who are going to an unfamiliar site for the first time, may find it hard to know how safe the website is.
"It’s probably safe, but with the average cost of a data breach costing $4.35 million," said Microsoft, citing a report from IBM Data Breach.
"Enhanced security mode is an opt-in security feature exclusive to Microsoft Edge, meant to reduce the risk of an attack by automatically applying more conservative security settings on unfamiliar sites. It follows Zero Trust practices to mitigate memory-related vulnerabilities by disabling just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compilation that could be used to attack devices."
"The security feature also enables additional operating system protections for the browser including Hardware-enforced Stack Protection and Arbitrary Code Guard (ACG). Users and IT admins can set the level of security based on frequency of visits to a website or for specific websites."
This feature has three security preference levels users can choose: Basic, Balanced, or Strict.
Read: Microsoft Edge Adds More Security When Users Visit Less Popular Websites
And lastly, Microsoft is also adding a set of accessibility features to make Microsoft Edge more accessible for everyone.
This in turn should also make browsing the web a more intuitive and inclusive experience.
Microsoft said that it has added:
- Live captions: these are displayed in a live caption window when playing media like podcasts and videos.
- Instant answers: this provides suggested results when typing a person, place or thing in the address bar. Instant answers can be read by screen readers.
- Enhanced narrator: The narrator feature now provides contextual information about form fields and buttons, and allows users to more easily type information into form fields.
- Page colors: This feature is now in preview. It allows users to change page colors to improve readability.