3 ms·
Hmm, I don't like this name, it's still trying to be something special. I surmised from the chatter until now that Edge would be called "Internet", "My Interne
by EdSharkey 11y ago
Hmm, I don't like this name, it's still trying to be something special.
I surmised from the chatter until now that Edge would be called "Internet", "My Internet", or "Browse" or some other non-program entity thing. And quite frankly, that made me shiver a bit for Firefox and (less so) for Chrome.
See, what if Microsoft plain-wrapped their browser, made it seamless and ubiquitous? Perhaps this is what they were envisioning with the original Active Desktop style integration? (And no, I'm not talking about Metro tiles, blurgh.) A successful plain-wrapped browser is like an unstoppable ideology for me, there's no name to put to the enemy. Internet Explorer could be demonized - it had a marketdroid-crafted icon, it had a NAME.
I honestly can't conceive of what such a plain-wrapped browser experience would look because I like having multiple browser windows and I like tabbed browser windows. It does need to work something like an application, at least for me. For that matter, we can't continue Fisher Price'ing up our user experiences, apps like browsers need to be productivity focused and not cater to the 3 year olds and other neophytes. That Metro Internet Explorer browser experience in Windows 8 was a joke. Take up way WAY less screen real estate with the browser chrome, cut it out with hip, annoying animations, show me my information and be quick about it.
I feel the PRODUCT NAME needs to go - Edge needs to fade away and just be there in the background as a vaguely recognizable, essential, but rather bland and uninteresting part of the overall computing experience. If Edge did fade into the background and become this trusty thing with its own signature user experience and pleasant signature flourishes or painting style or whatever, then it would more easily make the jump to new devices, autos, televisions, billboards, etc. The exact same bland, trusty experience would be expected everywhere.
I feel egos probably drove this naming decision. Oh well, already stumbling out the gate; a visionary needs to wrest control. Hopefully not another opportunity for meaningful change squandered.
- titanomachy 11y ago> we can't continue Fisher Price'ing up our user experiences I wouldn't bet on that.
- Vraxx 11y agoJust as a note in response to the suggestion the browser not have a name to make it harder to hate, most of the android default browsers for different phones have no distinguishable names yet you can still refer to them as the default browser if you wish to degrade them. People will have a name to call it if they wish to refer to it.
- EdSharkey 11y agoThat Android Webkit thing is an odd internal politics story, though. The Android team was separate from the rest of Google, and the Chrome team always wanted to slip in and replace the Android Webkit browser. But the Android team wouldn't have it because Chrome was too heavyweight for many years and would have led to a subpar experience. Android Webkit made a lot of sense up until a year or two ago because it was so simple and fast. But now the mobile hardware and Chrome performance has caught up. Chrome should be the one and only browser from Google that runs on Android. The Android team should simply concede and upgrade Android Webkit by gutting it and turning it into a Chrome launcher, damn the consequences. Edge, presumably, would be a much different situation than Chrome vs. Android Webkit. That would have Microsoft's full weight behind it and would be integral to their core strategies. God willing, the Edge team won't be competing with the zombie legacy IE maintenance team for resources and mindshare within Microsoft. The point of my original comment was that a great/competitive evergreen browser from Microsoft without a name would be a scary foe, especially if it ever claimed a majority share of the market.
- lern_too_spel 11y agoAOSP hasn't had its own web browser for a very long time now. It uses Chromium.