Microsoft or Google — It is a matter of love, in the end

If you just got yourself a new Windows-based computer, or if you are doing a fresh and complete installation of Microsoft operating system, chances are you will have to address the Edge versus Chrome issue, the two most widely used web browsers. The first is Microsoft’s and the second Google’s.

Edge comes pre-installed by Microsoft. If it is your favourite application then you have no issue. But if Chrome is your thing, you will have to fight with Edge/Microsoft to make Chrome the default browser. Naturally the system will do what you want and choose in the end, but not without at least two or three nagging notifications from Edge begging you: “please keep me as your default browser”. Whereas both Internet applications definitely are excellent products, their market shares in the world are a massive 69 per cent for Chrome and a humble seven per cent for Edge.

But the Edge versus Chrome issue is only the tip of the iceberg of the fierce competition between Microsoft and Google.

Each of the two GAFAM companies has a set of software applications that fulfils the same function, and each wants you to use theirs, naturally. The web browser is only one of them.

E-mail comes next (or first…!). Microsoft has Hotmail and Google Gmail. Office suite is the next item on the list: word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, etc. Microsoft has its MS-Office and Google G Suite. Then comes cloud storage, an item that is becoming more and more important in these days of working remotely: One Drive for Microsoft and Google drive for, well, Google.

Therefore, the comprehensive set that consists of a web browser, an email service, an Office suite and cloud storage, covers virtually all that a computer user needs and runs on a regular basis. This set has become a way to live and to work, regardless of who you are, how old you are or what you do in life. Its importance cannot be overstated.

So which way do you go? M or G?

You could use both of course, but getting organised this way with all your data and emails can be a challenge. Unless you happen to be working in the IT field, like the writer of this article, and need to know how to handle both sides, how they work and how you do the comparison, all for professional purpose, you better choose one of them and streamline your workflow as nicely as possible. 

The difficulty lies in the fact that the choice is not easy, if seen as a whole, unified solution. Gmail interface, for example, may be more attractive than Hotmail’s to some. On the other hand Microsoft’s Office Suite is really a powerful app to have and to use, if only for its truly amazing Access database module that simply has no equivalent.

The web browser question is not as clear as the above, for even though Chrome has the market’s lion share, Edge does come with some advantages over its competitor, in terms of reliability for example.

Looking at the two sets unbiased and as objectively as possible, one would unavoidably love them both and would be torn between them. A typical case of difficult choice to make.

Perhaps the one aspect to keep in mind when thinking of these two giants is the incredible weight they represent in our digital world. Many forget that YouTube, for example, is Google’s. This platform alone is a universe on its own. On the other hand, Microsoft’s pioneering applications like Word and Excel are not just computer software, but have become a way of living, of thinking, calculating and writing.

In the end going this way or that way may be a matter of personal affinity – of love I would say.