In a new post shared to its Windows blog, Microsoft says that it has “reached a major milestone” when it comes to improving the speed of Edge’s user interface. It now takes Microsoft’s browser less than 300 milliseconds to start rendering the first parts of a website for users, whether it’s text, images, or parts of the user interface.
It’s a metric known as First Contentful Paint (FCP) that Google introduced in its Chrome browser in 2017, and according to Microsoft, “industry research shows that waiting longer than 300 to 400ms for the initial content can significantly impact user satisfaction.” However, while loading the first elements of a site in less than 300 milliseconds can help a browser feel fast and responsive, FCP is not an indication of how long it will take a site to load in its entirety.
The upgrades could persuade some users to switch to Edge, which currently has less than five percent of the worldwide browser market share compared to Chrome’s 68 percent. Microsoft may also soon be facing new competition from companies like OpenAI that are also considering introducing their own browsers to complement existing AI web search tools.
In the coming months, Microsoft plans to introduce additional performance improvements to Edge for features like Print Preview and Extensions.