50 TECH ADVISOR • APRIL 2020REVIEW
With the new Edge, there’s little to distinguish
visuallybetweenthenewEdgeanda browsersuch
asChrome.It hasmuchthesameback,forward,
homeand page refresh controls, plus a star at the
end of the URL bar to set the current page as a
favourite.EdgesawthatI hada favouritestoolbar
enabledfromwithinChrome,andaddedit tomy
Edgebrowsingexperience.
The new Edge also allows you access to both
Microsoft’s curated Edge extensions as well as the
Google Chrome Web Store, though you’ll have to
enablecontentfromotherwebstorestoaccess
andload them.
One plus in my book: Edge keeps what it calls
the‘immersivereadermode’.A smallbookwith
a speakericonsuperimposedoverit mayappear
in theURLbarwhenyou’reviewinga webpage.
Thatopensthe page on a paper-like background,
eliminating all superfluous content like ads.
Unfortunately, that also currently includes embedded
images, which can be helpful to illustrate a story.
What’s different, though, is the ability to add a
web page to a Collection – a collection of bookmarks,
yes, but with a powerful enhancement. Collections,
introducedlastyearaspartofthe‘old’Edge,allow
youto gather a number of web pages into a group
of links that can live in your sidebar. (You’ll find the
Collections icon just to the right of the URL bar.)
Though you can collect just about any web page,
Collections is most effective as a shopping tool for
comparing products, using data that Edge ‘scrapes’
from the page. When you export the Collection to