Microsoft Edge may have found another way to compete with Google Chrome by introducing a brand new feature that users might welcome. The latest beta version of the browser shows that Edge is defaulting to limiting (if not blocking) the auto-playing videos on websites.
The news is reported by Techdows, which spotted a change in the Canary (read pre-beta) build of Chromium-based Edge. This version of Edge offers two settings under Media Autoplay: Allow and Limit, and the latter is the new default in Edge build 91.0.841.0 or higher.
Limit, as you may have surmised, is not the same as “block.” There was a Block option, but it is now locked behind a flag you must first enable. And it apparently never actually worked right. That said, this may just be a test. Beta versions of products often just show what a company is thinking about doing, not what it will do in the long run.
Meanwhile, as Chrome users know from their daily experiences using Google’s web browser, that software offers no such default. Maybe this is because Google itself depends wholly on online advertising.
This is (apparently) the latest in a series of efforts by Microsoft to peck at Chrome’s near-monopoly in the browser market. Recently, Edge added vertical tabs for more economic use of screen space, and its own password manager too. However, Edge currently only has 3.45% of the worldwide browser market (according to statcounter) — while Chrome has 64.15%.
Source: Tomsguide
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