Microsoft plans to dig through your Edge Collections to make suggestions Microsoft's Chromium-powered Edge browser will soon include an "Inspiration feed" among new features and changes that include tweaks to its Collections feature. Collections, a way to help Edge users collect webpages they're interested in viewing later, will soon allow you to add video and pictures, as well as to share …
I logged into Windows to get some work done (thus no network). After a while Windows threw up a big blue window covering my actual work.
Microsoft: "We could not access your feed. You may not be connected to the internet."
Me: What's a feed? *And*: Why the f is Microsoft saving my feed on their computer instead of on mine? **And**: I'm glad I'm not connected to the internet.
I like your thinking, there.
The only problem is I've never opened Edge, and if it does get opened by Bing search (even after doing everything to prevent it opening in the privacy settings), I immediately kill the process rather than even click the close icon, because I don't want Microsoft assuming their 'default' privacy opt-in. Whenever it opens, it opens like it has never been opened before and gets immediately killed, along with the five+ other processes it creates.
Would be nice if you could block it from connecting to anything.
Used to do this with IE: Make it my default browser, then block it at the firewall. Then if some malware did try opening a browser window (using the default being the common trick) it would open and sit there unable to connect. Even got a few warnings from IE that it couldn't connect. Told me I'd hit something dodgy (thanks, Google!) and saved me some pain.
But that was back in the day, eh: When you could reliably block internet connections as MS didn't put back doors in or ways to bypass their own darn firewall...
- Settings and more > Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Tracking prevention. Set Tracking prevention to On
5th layer of cascading menus to find the right object, and then to enable an inhibitor (want to prevent a behaviour? Turn this on).
Disingenuous to suggest they don't want you to find it, and if you do, not understand it?
Image search was great until the pinterest virus infected the internet.
Now all you get in the search results are pinterest pictures rather than the original website they stole it from. So although you can see the picture, you can't find the content relevant to the picture, which is probably you actually wanted.
"Well, if you add "research" regarding motorcycle museums in East Germany into your Collections flow, for example, Edge's Inspiration feed will suggest related content for you to check out like any recommendation engine might."
So it will no doubt think you are also interested in New York Taxi cabs and Amish horse drawn carts.
When did Google ever do a new feature in Chrome that benefited the user rather than Google coffers or allowed them to influence or control the internet?
Half of MS patches these days are Chromium Bug fixes.
I don't understand why so many people (The register included) need to express their displeasure at Microsoft and their products.
If you don't like them just use something else, you're free to give your data to whom ever you wish so they can sell it back to you whether you choose Chromebooks, Linux Mac, Android or whatever as your OS its your choice, as for browsers, find one that works for you and use it, get on with your life and be happy you still get the chance to choose as monoculture is really bad.
If you don't like them just use something else
Oh, we do. Frequently. We just get a little ticked off when Microsoft decides to try and change our mind for us and begins opening up Edge of it's own accord, regardless of the default browser.
My favourite is when I open up the Start menu and type the first few letters of the application I want and then hit return. Except I fat-finger a key, and suddenly Windows decides to open up a Bing search for "Excek" in Edge, rather than in the default Firefox.
Once Microsoft gave up their own browser, why did they decide they needed another? If it was about the user, there were already sufficient choices. Edge is all about Microsoft getting back into the advertising game using its dominance in the consumer PC to do so.
" Edge is all about Microsoft getting back into the advertising game using its dominance in the consumer PC to do so."
No it isn't. Microsoft aren't going to climb that mountain successfully, and they know it.
Edge (and Microsoft 365) are, at least right not, about Microsoft maintaining dominance on business, corporate and education devices and poking Google (and Chrome) in the eye with a very sharp stick. How do I know this? See that little 'sign in' option (and the 'sync' option) in the top-right corner of Edge? What does that sign the little corporate drones *into*, especially compared to Chrome? There's a lightbulb moment for you... and there's also why Edge is a Chromium browser and not one based on another engine...
Also: everyone rags on Edge yet fifty million percent of the interwebs uses Chrome, and they are basically the same toy, just tweaked to use their own cloud signins. Go figure.
A/C.
See that little 'sign in' option (and the 'sync' option) in the top-right corner of Edge?
No, because I don't use it and I personlly don't know any companies that have made it their standard browser. That's either Goolge Chrome or Firefox ESR.
Microsoft is force-feeding lockin to Microsoft 365 but, for companies at least, Edge isn't the tool to do it. There's much deeper integration using Azure Active Directory when log on to the machine.
Stop wasting my time showing me "stuff you might be interested in". I know what I want, so leave me alone!
I'm also really bored with the way these "insights" are becoming more and more ingrained in Outlook and the like. I really don't care what Bob in accounts is doing or want to now that I'm doing better at dealing with my emails this week.
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