Microsoft's new Edge browser will support Chrome extensions.
Microsoft will make its new Chromium-based Edge browser compatible with Chrome extensions. This feature will greatly enhance the functionality of Edge, although on the other hand, it will leave browser users vulnerable to malicious extensions, which are also quite a few.
Not so long ago, Microsoft announced its intention to rebuild Microsoft Edge to make it more convenient and safe for users. The solution to this problem was somewhat unexpected - it was announced that the updated Edge would be based on Chromium. Immediately after this announcement, many have a question about the support of Chrome extensions browser Edge. And now he decided, and positively.
The innovation statement was made by Kyle Pflag , Senior Product Manager of the Edge team. He spoke about everything on Reddit , stressing that the team’s intention was to add support for extensions.
Since many Chrome users use the extension, the Microsoft solution is quite logical - after all, those who decide to switch to Edge will be able to feel in their native environment. But this also means the likelihood that Edge users will be at risk of being infected by Chrome’s malicious extensions. Dozens of new malware appear every day.
There are not so many people willing to attack Edge - at the moment the share of the browser market is vanishingly small. That is why the number of cybercriminals releasing malware under Edgr is also minimal. But Chrome’s market share exceeds 60%, which means that there are a huge amount of people who want to release malware.
The range of possibilities of such extensions is very wide. This includes advertising on any web pages, and the theft of personal data, crypto-mining with scripts and much more.
Google is not able to curb intruders - there are several new ones for one remote extension. There are whole teams of "experts" who work exclusively on extensions for Chrome, loading new ones in return for those that have been eliminated.
Perhaps Microsoft will manage to deal better with malicious extensions. Perhaps this can be done if Microsoft will load the extensions into its own directory. For developers, such a move will cause additional difficulties, but it may work.
It is worth recalling that the new browser is intended, first of all, for ARM-systems. If the browser is not native, then it must be run in emulation mode, which affects the performance of the system and the browser itself. Recently, Microsoft representatives said that the new browser will be installed on all Microsoft devices. I wonder if the browser will work on Microsoft Hololens glasses.