Microsoft Edge is the new browser that will replace Internet Explorer in the new Windows 10 operating system. Microsoft is promising a faster, stripped-down web browser with annotations and voice search. Credit: Microsoft
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Microsoft Edge is the new browser that will replace Internet Explorer in the new Windows 10 operating system. Microsoft is promising a faster, stripped-down web browser with annotations and voice search. Credit: Microsoft

Smell ya later, Internet Explorer.

This week at a developer conference, Microsoft unveiled the successor to its oft-ridiculed web browser. It's called Microsoft Edge and it will be released with its upcoming Windows 10 operating system later this year. (Win 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8 users, by the way.)

How will Edge be different than IE? Microsoft promises a stripped-down, faster web browser that will include a reading list (already a feature in other browsers such as Safari), tools to annotate web pages with highlighter colors and voice search using Cortana (Microsoft’s version of Siri).

Internet Explorer will still live on in the logo. The “E” in Edge will be the old Internet Explorer icon. And the new name means Microsoft’s biggest fans can tell people, “I’m going to use Edge on my Surface to ask Cortana to Bing some Xbox tips.”

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