- Microsoft seems to think about the idea of building Edge’s new tab page around Copilot
- The new provision on the page is always hidden in tests, so it’s still very early
- It seems more rationalized, distributing MSN content at first glance, although it is not clear if this is how the final implementation will take place
Microsoft Edge has already the Copilot AI assistant, but now he has been spotted to take the front of the stage in the new web browser tab page (known as NTP for short).
Windows the last one pointed out that this change (first noticed on Reddit) is present in the Canary test channel (the oldest) for Edge, although it is not active by default. You must activate various experimental flags behind the scenes to make it work.
To briefly explain the NTP, every time you create a new tab in Edge, that’s what you see. It is indeed a (kind) of blank canvas, and at the moment in the version of the Microsoft web browser version, it contains a central search box (to draw a bing search) which is completed by MSN Feed Material. (You can personalize the latter to show very little flow, or have it cover the major part of the screen – in the latter case, the NTP is not such a empty canvas).
With the new scheme of things seen in tests, everything that is replaced by a central co -pilot prompt.
You can always enter a search query – as you would with the current search area – but you can also ask the AI assistant everything you would do elsewhere (like via Copilot on the web, or in the Windows taskbar, or Copilot in the Edge side panel by the way).
There are shortcut buttons under the co -pilot prompt box on the NTP, allowing the user to click to “write a draft” or to “learn something new” and so on.
Windows recently stresses that there is also a small drop -down menu that allows you to adjust the operation of the NTP. The default parameter ” here is a mixture of research and cat suggestions, so depending on what you type in the co -pilot prompt, theoretically Edge will determine if you will get a more complete AI response or a simple bing search result.
Alternatively, you can select “search and navigate” which focuses on web search (without AI answers), or there is a “cat” parameter that offers a conversational experience with Copilot.
In other words, you can opt for a more traditional search (as is currently the case with the NTP), a full IA experience or a mixture of the two (by default) with Edge, hopefully, making intelligent decisions on what must be done according to your initial request.
Analysis: More AI, but more rationalized (for now)
Remember that all this is not even in the tests yet, it is still in the early stages to be prepared to be tried in the Canary channel. The “ chat ” parameter mentioned above does not work at all – it simply shows a bing research result – and shortcut buttons (for writing a project) do not work either. As such, it is still an approximate idea, and it could change before it is fully activated even for the testers.
We can see the direction in which Microsoft plans to go, however, and this revised NTP certainly has positive aspects. It is much less congested and the new refreshing tab page seems to be Loufacable, especially rid of the MSN food gunk that many people are not targeting.
There are people who will argue that it is just Microsoft who pushes the AI and co -pilot in another way, but to be just for the software giant, there is the choice to do without AI responses (by eliminating the basic option of “research”). And also, if this is the price we have to pay to get a more rationalized NTP without msn content, then it is probably well payable.
That said, as Windows also points out, Microsoft tests MSN content in Copilot (on Android currently), and it is quite possible that this (personalized and targeted) material is served via the Co -Pilot box on the updated NTP of Edge. This might not take place in this way, but it seems unlikely that Microsoft stops pushing its network content anytime soon.
