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Microsoft Explains Why Edge Has So Few Extensions (betanews.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the living-on-the-Edge dept.

Mark Wilson writes: It's now a little more than a year since Microsoft first brought extensions to Edge. After so long you would expect the selection of addons to be overwhelming -- but that's far from being the case. In all, there are only 70-odd Edge extensions available, and Microsoft has been moved to explain why.

In a blog post, the company almost apologetically explains that it is "building a thoughtfully curated ecosystem," citing concern over quality and a fear of diminishing the user experience. What some might describe as "slow," Microsoft refers to as a "purposefully metered approach" to new extensions, and you probably shouldn't expect things to speed up a great deal any time soon.
Colleen Williams, senior program manager for Microsoft Edge, says "We want Microsoft Edge to be your favorite browser, with the fundamentals you expect -- speed, power efficiency, reliability, security." She also adds that "Astute observers of our release notes and active testers in the Insider program may have noticed that some preview builds break extensions temporarily."

19 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. Sigh. by ledow · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because they know that all it needs is one plugin, that replaces any web page you visit with a big "DOWNLOAD ANOTHER BROWSER" button that lets you grab Vivaldi, or Chrome/Chromium, or Firefox/IceWeasel, or whatever else.

    1. Re: Sigh. by Insanity+Defense · · Score: 2, Funny

      What the fuck is cortana? Sounds like some sort of butthole disorder.

      Seems like an accurate description

    2. Re:Sigh. by geoskd · · Score: 2

      Almost feel sorry for Microsoft, they must wonder what they're doing wrong.

      It's not what they are doing wrong now, its what they've done wrong in the past.

      People who write browser extensions do it because they like the browser, but there is one little thing they think could be better. The problem Microsoft has is that most people who have a choice don't use edge because they don't trust microsoft, and people who use it because they have no choice are not the people who are going to write browser extensions.

      The only other path to browser extensions is profit, but theres no money in it because the market share is so low that it is essentially unmonetizable. Its the same basic problem that Microsoft had in mobile. The products are just fine, it's the company people don't trust. The only people who still like/trust Microsoft are those that are still ignorant of the real alternatives.

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    3. Re: Sigh. by Megol · · Score: 2

      Don't know if I should treat this as a bad troll or an insane idiot.

    4. Re:Sigh. by Bill+Hayden · · Score: 2

      The only other path to browser extensions is profit, but theres no money in it because the market share is so low that it is essentially unmonetizable. Its the same basic problem that Microsoft had in mobile. The products are just fine, it's the company people don't trust. The only people who still like/trust Microsoft are those that are still ignorant of the real alternatives.

      It's actually a money-losing proposition. You have to pay Microsoft to be an official developer and publish your free Edge browser extension, not unlike Apple and Safari. To me, that's offensive -- so I only publish my browser extensions for Firefox and Chrome, even though they would run fine on Safari and Edge.

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  2. Better explanation: by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The API is a massive security hole and can tank the entire browser with ease so they will only allow large companies that they can fight in court to make extensions.

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  3. How about they explain why... by MatthiasF · · Score: 3, Insightful

    IT HAS SO FEW FEATURES!

    I try using it, just to give it a chance but there's no way to organize bookmarks easily, it has constant problems on popular sites like Flickr and it's hard as hell it find the settings you want to tweak it to something comfortable for your use.

    It's like Microsoft made a browser for speed but then forgot that people need to be able to USE it too!

  4. Or maybe by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There are no users so extension writers don't give a damn? It explains why a lot of Firefox extensions are rotting away too.

  5. Edge is horrible Microsoft SHIT by brxndxn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft, you are assholes. You are assholes to the users and you are assholes to web developers. For years, when Internet Explorer was the dominant browser, you had numerous little gimmicks in your 'interpretation' of web standards that made pages appear broken unless developers went out of their way to support Internet Explorer specifically. Now that Internet Explorer is only a relic for corporate IT to continue using outdated software (and thus not doing their job), you create an entirely new browser that fucks the user even harder.

    That browser is called Edge. It is the most worthless browser ever created. It looks like it renders about 50% of web pages in some kind of usable form - but even the intended 'usable' form is a nightmare in UI. Because a few people use Windows 10 as a tablet, you make it work like that for 100% of people. The reason there are no Edge plugins is because there are no Edge users. The only Edge users left are the dumb ones that don't even know they can search 'Chrome', 'Firefox', or 'Opera' and instantly start having a better computing experience. Edge is a half-finished smoldering pile of garbage that makes the user feel like he or she is being controlled.

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  6. Chrome and Firefox won't run on Windows 10 S by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    and that is MS hope to make edge get users. Just wait for the EU smack down on that.

  7. Microsoft, please port Edge to Linux and macOS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Microsoft, please port Edge to Linux and macOS!

    With Firefox having essentially destroyed itself, and with Firefox 57 breaking nearly all of my extensions, I'm in the market for a new browser. I prefer to use the same browser on all the systems I use, so it has to support Linux and macOS.

    I refuse to use Pale Moon after how its development team treated Pale Moon's users so awfully during the AdNauseam extension blocking disaster. Pale Moon doesn't even exist now, as far as I'm concerned.

    I also don't want to use any Chromium-derived browser, including Chrome, Vivaldi, Opera or Brave. I do like Safari, but it doesn't work on Linux, obviously.

    If Edge were ported to Linux and macOS, it could finally become the cross-platform Chrome competitor we've all wanted for so long, or at least since Firefox went shitty.

    I would gladly use Edge if it supported the OSes that I use.

    1. Re:Microsoft, please port Edge to Linux and macOS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      You're probably too young to remember this, or maybe they didn't have computers in Canada back then, but Internet Explorer used to run on classic Mac OS and Mac OS X. And Internet Explorer used to run on Solaris and HP-UX, too. So Microsoft porting its web browsers to Mac and UNIX platforms isn't without precedent.

      Maybe you're also ill-informed about how Microsoft has released .NET Core and has ported it to Linux and macOS. And maybe you're also ill-informed about how Microsoft's Visual Studio Core product runs on Linux and macOS. And although you probably don't know what SQL Server is, the reality is that Microsoft has been porting it to Linux, too.

      I know it will fuck up your really shallow and pathetic world view, but Microsoft has a long history of porting their software to other platforms. It's quite reasonable to think that Edge could be ported to Linux and macOS at some point. If that did happen, it probably would mean the end of Firefox.

    2. Re:Microsoft, please port Edge to Linux and macOS! by Teckla · · Score: 2

      Opera is owned by a dodgy Chinese company now.

      Use it at your own risk.

  8. More like nobody cares by gweihir · · Score: 2

    Seriously, who cares about Edge? If you write a Chrome plugin, it runs on Chrome and a lot of other browsers using the same engine (Vivaldi, for example). And you are not tied to one platform (Windows) either. Even learning how to write an Edge plugin is a waste of time, the market is far too small.

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    1. Re:More like nobody cares by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You have to excuse them, they're not used to not being the biggest market where people would jump through even the most ridiculous hoops to develop for them.

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  9. They have Tampermonkey by BenJeremy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That opens the door for a lot of userscripts.

  10. Enough Extensions for Me by dave562 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I recently switched to Edge from Chrome because I am doing everything I can to step away from Google.

    The only Chrome extension that I use that was not available in Edge is Privacy Badger. I went with Ghostery instead.

    Other than that, they had everything else I use. LastPass. Adblock Plus. etc.

  11. Re:Edge is fine without a ton of extensions by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Give it a rest already. They're all spying on us.

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  12. how do i uninstall edge ? by cats-paw · · Score: 2

    The single most awful thing about win 10 is all the crap I have to leave installed because microsoft.

    I don't want edge because it's probably a security threat even if you don't use it. How long before there's an exploit that invokes it even when it's not your default web browser.

    and yet - it appears to be very difficult to remove.

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