Microsoft Edge, which is one of the best browsers for Windows, is getting three new features in the next big update. Microsoft appears to be testing a new web widgets feature, Chrome’s tabs search and extension menu for the browser.
Widgets have been around for a long time on Android and it looks like Windows 10 will also get support for widgets via Microsoft Edge. The Redmond firm is currently testing news + weather widget that will keep the latest headlines at your fingertips with Bing’s MSN news feed and its simple but effective widget if you like reading headlines.
The news widget for Microsoft Edge is based on the same approach as Windows 10’s upcoming taskbar news and weather feed. It can show your personalized briefing, with current popular stories relevant to your interests (like sports, finance, etc) and/or location.
You can also close the browser and still access the widget by clicking on the icon floating over your desktop and other Windows apps.
At the moment, Microsoft is only experimenting with news feed widget and it’s likely that more widgets will be introduced later this year. According to Microsoft, the web widget is part of a Controlled Feature Roll-out (CFR) and only a subset of users have it available at this time.
Tabs search
In addition to web widgets, Microsoft is also working on tabs search support for Chromium Edge.
Like Google, Microsoft has been gradually adding features that make it easier to manage a large number of tabs.
Last year, the company added support for ‘vertical tabs’ and a new update will bring Chrome’s tabs search. As the name suggests, this new feature will allow you to search for open tabs.
As shown in the above screenshot, the tab search feature can be accessed from the browser’s top bar.
Extension menu
Focused on simplicity, extensions menu is finally coming to Microsoft Edge and it’ll be marked by a puzzle icon.
All the extensions can be accessed when you tap on the puzzle icon. If you don’t like the new look, you can always pin the extensions to the address bar.
