- Microsoft seems to mull the idea of building EDGE’s new tab —side around Copilot
- The new layout to the page is still hidden in testing, so it’s still very early days
- It looks more streamlined and dispenses with MSN content on the face of it, although it is not clear if this is how the final implementation will pan
The Microsoft Edge already has the Copilot AI assistant built in, but now it has been seen in taking the middle of the stage in the web browser’s new tab (known as NTP for short).
Windows latest marked that this change (first noticed on Reddit) is present in the Canary (earliest) test channel by edge, even if not active by default. You need to activate various experimental flags behind the scenes to make it work.
To explain NTP cards when creating a new tab at Kant, this is what you see. Effectively, it is a (kind of) empty canvas, and right now in the release version of Microsoft’s web browser it contains a central search box (for firing a bing search), which is supplemented with MSN feed material. (You can customize the latter to show very little of the feed or make it cover most of the screen – in the latter case, NTP is not such an empty canvas).
With the new schedule with things seen in testing, everything that has been replaced is replaced by a central copilot prompt.
You can still enter a search request – as you would with the current search box – but alternatively you can ask the AI assistant anything you would have elsewhere (eg via copilot on the Internet or in Windows Taskbar or Copilot in the edge of the edge for that case).
There are shortcut buttons under the Copilot -Prompt box on the NTP so the user can click to ‘write a draft’ or ‘learn something new’ and so on.
Windows latest further points out that there is also a small dropdown menu that allows you to adjust how NTP works. The ‘Standard’ setting Here is a mixture of search and chat suggestions, so based on what you enter the Copilot prompt, theoretical edge will determine if you get a fuller AI response or a simple bing result.
Alternatively, you can choose ‘Search and navigate’, which is focused on web search (without AI response), or there is a ‘chat’ setting that offers a conversation experience with copilot.
In other words, you can go for a more traditional search (as is currently the case with NTP), a full-on AI experience, or a mixture of the two (as standard) with edge, hopefully make intelligent decisions about what needs to be made based on your original query.
Analysis: More AI, but more streamlined (so far)
Remember, all this is not even in testing yet, it is still in the early stages of getting ready to be tried in the Canary Channel. The ‘Chat’ setting, mentioned above, doesn’t work at all yet – it just brings a bing search result – and the shortcut buttons (to write a draft) don’t work either. As such, this is still a rough idea and it may well change before it is fully activated even for testers.
However, we can see the direction that Microsoft is thinking of going into, and this revision of NTP has certainly positive aspects. It is much less messy, and the updated new tab -page looks commendable clean, especially off with MSN -Feed gunk that many people are not interested in.
There are people who would argue that it is just Microsoft who pushes AI and Copilot in yet another way, but to be fair to the software giant there is a choice to dispense with the AI items (by choosing the basic ‘search’ option). And if that is the price we have to pay to get a more streamlined NTP without MSN content that has been pepped, it is undoubtedly worth paying.
That said, as Windows latest also points out, the Microsoft MSN content within Copilot (on Android at the moment) is testing, and it is very possible that this (personalized and targeted) material is served via the copilot box on EDGE’s updated NTP. It may not pan that way, but it seems unlikely that Microsoft will stop pushing its network content anytime soon.
