Google has posted warnings and alerts targeting Microsoft Edge on several of its services’ websites, including the Chrome Web Store add-on market, Google Drive, Gmail and the company’s default search page, google.com.
It’s not uncommon for Google to flag rival browsers with messages that recommend a user download Chrome to access the search company’s services. In the past, while it was building its now-dominant position in the browser space, Google targeted Mozilla’s Firefox and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) with such pop-ups. At times, rival browser makers have also countered Google with similar you-should-really-switch-from-Chrome tactics.
All such efforts rely on detecting the browser user agent, a string embedded in the HTML header that identifies the browser, its specific version and the operating system under which the browser runs. (Some analytics companies, such as the California-based Net Applications, use browser user agents to divine which browsers or operating systems are most used to go online.)
In the latest campaign, Google marked the Chrome Web Store – the official outlet for all Chrome browser add-ons – with a “Google recommends switching to Chrome to use extensions securely” message when the site was accessed by Edge. (The Chromium-based Edge can install and use any of the add-ons, also called “extensions” by Google, hosted by the Web Store.)
It’s unclear what Google means by the message, or how Chrome’s use add-ons are any more secure than Edge.
GoogleGoogle slapped this ‘recommendation’ on the Chrome Web Store when Edge accessed the add-on market.
At other Google services’ sites, including Google Drive, Google Docs, Gmail and the google.com search page, users of Edge see a different message. At Google Docs, for example, the pop-up reads, “To use Docs offline, upgrade to Chrome.” Meanwhile, the google.com site displays a message that reads, “Switch to Chrome for Windows.”
(Although Edge on Windows 10 encountered all the above Google-contrived pop-ups, Edge on macOS only received the message on the Chrome Web Store site.)
GoogleEven the Google search site pitches Chrome at Chromium-based Edge users.
Google was explicitly targeting Edge with these messages. Two other browsers, Opera and Brave, also built from the same Chromium codebase as Edge – or Chrome, for that matter – did not show any recommendations or other messages when they were steered to the same sites: the Chrome Web Store, Google Drive, Google Docs, Gmail and google.com. (Like Edge, both Opera and Brave are able to install and use the add-ons in the Chrome Web Store.)
That Google took aim at Edge makes sense: In January, Edge accounted for 7% of all browser activity for the month, while Opera was pegged at just 1.4%. (Brave did not register on Net Applications’ tally.) Of the Chrome rivals that also rely on Chromium, Edge is easily the biggest threat – and at that, really not all that big – to Google’s control of the browser market.
