Microsoft is seriously improving this love-or-hate Edge browser feature

Date:
Wed, 26 Jul 2023 11:13:45 +0000

Description:
Edge is set to offer a more personalized browsing experience courtesy of the sidebar.

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Microsoft has announced that developers can now build extensions for the Edge browsers sidebar.

For the uninitiated, the sidebar is a panel that pops up alongside the web page the user is currently browsing to offer various features or tools in a side-by-side fashion so they can be conveniently accessed.

To pick a few examples, those capabilities include the ability to use Outlook and compose an email, right there in the web browser , or avail yourself of other tools (such as a dictionary) - and of course, the Bing AI chatbot is right here too.

Windows Central spotted Microsofts blog post introducing the ability for
devs to get their extensions in the sidebar, and this comes with some neat potential tricks for developers.

Devs will be able to implement their extension in the sidebar so that it appears across all websites and tabs in Edge, or alternatively, the extension can enable itself only with specific sites. Developers can also make it so that the sidebar seamlessly reverts to the default panel when you click on another tab and shift away from that specific site. Analysis: A more personalized browsing experience

In short, these web extensions can operate as youd normally expect within a browser, its just that theyll be present in the side panel, with the ability to tailor them to only appear when visiting specific websites as mentioned.

As Microsoft tells developers: Note that your sidebar page offers the same level of flexibility as other extension pages. You can load scripts, call
APIs from your sidebar page and unleash the full potential of your
creativity.

Theres a considerable dollop of potential here, then, in offering a more personalized browsing experience overall.

Microsoft also reminds us about sidebar apps, and the company says it plans
to help users discover and install these apps as theyre browsing the web. So Edge users will get extensions and apps flagged up to them when visiting websites that offer these perks.

All that said, the sidebar is not everyones beverage of choice, but it can be disabled in that case. We may also see the ability to detach the sidebar from Edge , eventually, and drop it on the desktop as a kind of second taskbar, if youre a real fan of this feature.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/computing/edge/microsoft-is-seriously-improving-this -love-or-hate-edge-browser-feature


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