Next time you launch the Edge browser, you may find a somewhat unexpected banner with sports results at the bottom of every page. That is not malware or adware. That is Microsoft infecting Edge with yet another needless feature made to promote Bing and its services.
Not so long ago, Microsoft started testing Sports Ticker in the Edge browser. The idea behind this feature is to keep you up to date with live, previous, and upcoming games while you browse the Internet. The banner will show up on every page, not just the new tab page, on systems where users enabled personalized experience.
It is easy to see Sports Ticker in Microsoft Edge as yet another piece of bloatware ruining a once good browser (technically, it is). Fortunately, Microsoft is kind enough to let you personalize Sports Ticker or turn it off altogether. You can set Edge to display sports results on a banner only on the new tab page or sports-related websites. Also, there is a button for disabling Sports Ticker.
According to a message from an Edge Community Manager on Reddit, Microsoft is currently testing Sports Ticker in the Canary and Dev channel. Also, the company will not show the banner to people who disabled "Personalized web experience" in Edge settings and do not follow sports updates in their MSN profiles.
In case you missed it, there is another controversial new feature coming soon to Edge. Microsoft plans to let users follow content creators and track their updates on a dedicated panel. Clicking a YouTube video from that panel opens Bing, forcing people to use Microsoft's search engine.
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I’m getting tired of Edge. It could be a good browser if they let it be a browser. Now it’s just bloatware. However, I am not a fan of Chromium based browsers. It will be interesting to see what DuckDuckGo comes out with for desktop browsers. I hope someone makes a browser without all the junk!
I bet it will be one more Chromium-based browser. There are no working alternatives left. Everything is Chromium based these days.
@SweSG: There is another, lesser-known, non-Chromium browser still around, besides Firefox, which you could perhaps look at — Mozilla Seamonkey. It harks back to the days of the classic Netscape Suite. It’s my daily driver at home and works OK for my needs. Maybe it might interest you?
Firefox is well known but the classic Mozilla suite appears to have rather fallen off the radar. But it is still there; have a search for Seamonkey Project.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with this project, just a happy user of the product. YMMV