Do you remember the early Microsoft Edge versions from 2020? A fast, clean, and bloat-free alternative to Chrome without compatibility or performance compromises. At last, after Internet Explorer and the original Edge, the future of the Microsoft-owned browser looked bright.
Sadly, at some point, Microsoft made a wrong turn. Edge from 2023 is a weird browser with questionable features, adware-like practices, and changes that raise privacy concerns.
According to a post on Reddit, Microsoft is working on “improved” copy-paste capabilities in the Edge browser to let you paste “Web preview” links with extra information, such as a headline and thumbnail. The problem with the idea is that it requires sending more information to Microsoft servers as described on its settings page:
Web preview may send data to the URL destination and may call Microsoft services.
Unlike other upcoming features in Microsoft Edge, such as password categories and notes, “Web preview” is not available via flag or controlled feature rollout (CFR). The post author claims Microsoft has been internally testing it “for quite some time,” and they do not know why it is not available for public testing.
This feature has been tested (INTERNALLY) for quite some time, I don’t know why Microsoft hasn’t enabled it by default yet (not even with a flag), maybe there is a serious bug and that’s why they haven’t enabled it (not even in the Canary version).
Regardless of whether Microsoft will ship “Web preview” to the public, it is not the first (and probably not the last) feature that makes you question Edge’s promise to keep you safer and more private. Not so long ago, a scandal emerged after users caught Edge leaking their browsing history and installing extensions without permission. Also, Edge wants to take a screenshot of every webpage you visit and send images you view online to Microsoft for enhancement (encrypted, fortunately). Add to that other annoyances like begging Chrome users to set Bing as their default search engine and injecting ads on other websites.