Google Chrome Threatened By Microsoft Edge Browser?

Google enjoys a commanding lead against other tech companies in terms of internet browser market share. Despite the huge gap in the number of people using the Mountain View giant's browser, however, it appears that it is quite threatened by a newer competitor – or at least, that's what the reports are saying.

According to W3Counter's report for Browser & Platform Market Share for January of this year, about 58.2% of consumers use Google's Chrome browser. This puts it at top spot, outperforming Apple's Safari (17.7%), Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Edge browsers (7.1%), Mozilla's Firefox (5.5%) and the Opera browser (2.6%) by a huge margin.

Despite the huge lead, it appears that Google doesn't want people to choose Microsoft's Edge browser. 9To5Google reported that the Chrome maker has deployed a variety of means to entice or push “new” Edge users to migrate to its browser. The means of pushing people to use Chrome were first spotted by TechDows and MSPowerUser.

The methods use a simple message displayed on all of its online services. Those who use Google Docs on an Edge browser, for example, will be greeted by a pop-up that says “To use Docs offline, upgrade to Chrome.” Those using Google's Translate feature via Edge will also be welcomed by a pop-up that says “Switch to Chrome and get Google Translate built in.”

Even the mere act of loading Google's search page on the Edge browser will result to seeing a pop-up that goes like “Switch to Chrome for Windows” or “Google recommends using Chrome.” The message includes descriptions like “Built for Windows. Hide annoying ads and protect against malware on the web” and “Try a fast, secure browser with updates built in.”

While the pop-up messages do not do anything bad to Edge users, they imply that Microsoft's browser doesn't offer all the benefits that Google's Chrome does, Laptop Mag noted.

Google's moves to push Edge users to jump to Chrome could simply be considered competitive behavior. But since the messages do not appear in other browsers such as Opera, it could also mean that Edge is making Chrome worried.