In a new blog post, Microsoft Edge CEO Kim Denny shows how Microsoft has made its browser faster and more efficient over the past few months.
According to Engadget, to help users perform their tasks as quickly as possible, the team implemented Profile-Guided Optimizations (PGOs) in the Edge 81 Stable channel and Link-Time Optimization (LTOs) in Edge. 83 in March.
PGOs prioritize the most important parts of the code, while LTOs optimize memory usage. These two techniques are thought to be the reason for the Edge’s speed improvements up to 13% over previous versions based on the Speedometer 2.0 benchmark.
In April, Microsoft also introduced improvements to browser scrolling animations, and enhanced the way users scroll, feel, and react to touches. Denny says those changes make Microsoft Edge work smoother and more responsive.
The Edge team is also continuing to work to reduce the amount of RAM and CPU the browser needs. For example, Windows 10’s May 2020 update can reduce browser memory usage by up to 27% based on Microsoft’s internal tests.
Finally, Microsoft has shrunk the size of its Edge browser by half over the past year so it doesn’t take up too much storage space on users’ devices.
According to NetMarketshare, Microsoft’s Edge browser recently overtook Firefox to become the most popular browser after Chrome. Chrome still holds a large share of the market with 71.11%, while Firefox loses a lot of market share at 7.36% as Microsoft Edge is becoming more popular with 8.09% market share. .
