Back in October 2022, Microsoft Edge Canary introduced a new feature called Smart Find, an AI-powered webpage search that would find related pages and the right page you were looking for even if you misspelled the word or phrase.
The recently updated Microsoft 365 roadmap reveals that the Smart Find feature will be available for all users. According to Microsoft’s roadmap, “Searching for a word or phrase on a webpage has become easier with AI. Even if you misspell a word in your search query, we’ll suggest related matches and words making it effortless to find what you're looking for. When you search, simply select the suggested link to quickly locate the desired word or phrase.”
The roadmap also details another new feature for Edge called Match. According to the roadmap, users can “use Match case to match whole words and accented characters when using Find Filters. Select Show find options then toggle Match case to turn on the filter.”
There’s yet another feature being tested as well according to Neowin, and that’s the ability to use “Find on Page” in the Edge sidebar. The updated version shows you the entire sentence containing your search instead of a new place for the popup to appear.
Microsoft states that the new Edge AI features will begin rolling out September 2023 for all Edge users but if you want access to them now you can download Edge Beta, Dev, or Canary from the official Edge Insider website. However, Smart Find isn’t supported for Linux or macOS, only for Microsoft Edge on Windows. And “Find in Page” will be a slow rollout for Edge users, rather than drop for them all at once.
Microsoft Edge is a superior browser but…
Microsoft Edge is a surprisingly solid Chromium browser with plenty of features and tools wrapped around a neat low-memory package, much lower than its competition Google Chrome. And when I say that Edge has more and better tools than Chrome, I mean it.
First, it has nearly all the same extensions as Chrome, as well as tools like Edge Collections system, where you can build specific folders of bookmarks with ease to help keep you organized. There is also web capture, read-aloud accessibility features, the Bing AI chatbot, improved dark mode, and more.
However, even with those benefits, Microsoft manages to make Edge unbearable with its overly aggressive advertising, which practically shoves the browser in the face of Windows OS users. Not to mention all the bloatware it likes to install without your permission. Personally, I never want to use the Edge browser as long as I live solely for this reason. Then again you should know which browser I prefer, and it’s not Edge or Chrome.
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