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Microsoft Edge may have found another way to live up to its name and get a edge on Google Chrome. The latest browser beta shows that Edge limits (if not blocks) autoplaying videos on websites by default. You know those clips that no one has ever asked for that makes the proverbial record scratch your brain when they start playing out of nowhere?
This news comes from Techdows, who spotted a change in the Canary (read pre-beta) version of Chrome-based Edge. This version of Edge offers two settings under Media Autoplay: Allow and Limit, and the latter is the new default setting in Edge build 91.0.841.0 or higher.
Limiting, as you may have guessed, is not the same as “blocking”. There was a Block option, but it’s now locked behind a flag that you need to activate first. And it apparently never worked properly. Having said that, it might just be a test. Beta versions of products often show what a business is thinking do, not what it will do in the long run.
That said, there’s no reason Edge couldn’t take autoplay more seriously. If Microsoft had an ad campaign trashing Chrome’s autoplay videos, this would likely be the most important moment in its current browser short history.
Meanwhile, as Chrome users know from their day-to-day experiences using Google’s web browser, this software does not offer such a default. Maybe it’s because Google is nothing if not a business based in online advertising. No one can say for sure, because Google itself has not given a reason.
This is (apparently) the latest in a series of efforts by Microsoft to nibble Chrome’s near monopoly in the browser market. Recently, Edge has added vertical tabs for more economical use of screen space, as well as its own password manager.
That said, Edge currently only has 3.45% of the global browser market (according to statcounter) – while Chrome has 64.15%. Or to put it another way, Chrome has 18.59 times more chock in the market than Edge. That’s a lot of ground to catch up.
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