As part of Microsoft's embrace of Chromium, Edge users will get access to Chrome extensions, and EdgeHTML will be replaced by Blink and Chakra with V8
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat :
Context & Ripple Effects
This closes a loop Microsoft opened two years earlier, when it said it would offer a tool to port Chrome extensions to Edge rather than adopt them outright. The porting-tool approach treated EdgeHTML as worth preserving; today's move abandons that premise entirely, rebuilding Edge on Google's open source Chromium project and shipping it beyond Windows 10 to Windows 7, Windows 8, and macOS. Coverage of the decision frames it as Microsoft declaring the web its strategic app platform and committing to invest in the engine itself rather than maintain a rival one.
First-order effects
- Edge users gain immediate access to the entire Chrome Web Store ecosystem instead of waiting on ports, removing the extension gap that was Edge's most-cited practical disadvantage.
- Microsoft stops maintaining EdgeHTML and the Chakra JavaScript engine, folding its browser effort into upstream Chromium and V8 development.
Second-order effects
- Google's Chromium project gains Microsoft as a contributor and co-investor, concentrating engine stewardship among fewer, larger backers while Gecko and WebKit remain the only non-Blink alternatives.
- Web developers no longer need to test against EdgeHTML quirks, so sites will be optimized for Blink first — which further erodes any remaining reason for users or developers to treat Edge as a distinct target.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, browser competition shifts entirely above the engine layer — features, sync, and services — as it already has in Microsoft's follow-on work adding Vertical Tabs, Smart Copy, and Password Monitor to Chromium Edge; the structural risk is a de facto single-engine web where standards decisions concentrate in one codebase.
The trend: Browser makers are consolidating on shared open source engines like Chromium, competing on features and services layered on top rather than on rendering technology itself.