Back on July 29, 2015 Microsoft launched its new internet browser Microsoft Edge. The company wanted to refresh its existing browser Internet Explorer and decided to begin anew by starting development from the ground up. Microsoft made it clear that Edge would only be supported on Windows 10, Xbox, and its mobile platforms. Many feel that excluding Edge from Windows 7 was a mistake as a large user base still uses Windows 7 despite official support ending in January of 2020. In effect Microsoft bifurcated its own market share in the browser space, while simultaneously breaking all previous Internet Explorer application compatibility.

     Today rumors are floating around that plans have been set in motion to replace Edge with a new web browser code-named "Anaheim". The new browser will replace the existing Edge core browser engine with Google's open source engine Blink. The biggest plus for Microsoft to make the switch is by moving to the Chromium engine developers would be severely less inconvenienced when trying to code websites and applications due to the resolution of many of the compatibility issues seen between Edge and Chrome. It is still too early to tell if the new browser will keep the existing name of Edge or if it will be re-branded. One thing is for sure though is that recently developers over at Microsoft have been contributing code to the open source Chromium program.

     If this pans out to fruition it represents a large step in the right direction for Microsoft. They finally will have a browser that can complete with the well established giants Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. The end user will also benefit greatly in that they will finally be getting a proper browser from Microsoft that will be much safer and functional for web browsing without the need to download any additional software.