Watch out Google Chrome: Microsoft Edge gets a ‘super drag and drop’ feature that actually lives up to the name as an impressive addition to the browser
Microsoft is adding a 'super drag and drop' capability to the Edge browser, or at least the software giant is currently trying to do so in testing.
The functionality is present in the Canary and Dev preview versions of Edge, and it's another way to quickly open a link in a new tab (with an extra twist added).
Currently, if you want to open a link in a new tab, you can right-click and select the option, or double-middle-click the link.
This new method is to click and drag the link (a short distance, in any direction) and then drop it, and the link will appear in a new tab.
The added twist here is that you can also highlight and drag (and then drop) any piece of text on a web page in the same way, and the text will be searched for in a new tab. (It's also useful to use your default search engine – and don't force the search to open in Bing.com, as the more cynical might have expected).
Elsewhere in the Canary version of Edge, a 'preview link' option has been added to the right-click menu for links. Selecting this will bring up a small preview of the site you are being redirected to, as you can see in the tweet below from well-known leaker Leopeva64.
The “Preview link” option now also works in Edge Canary:https://t.co/JKoc6TugnH.https://t.co/aaxOAR43aA pic.twitter.com/kZbZSO0L1xDecember 18, 2023
Analysis: A touch of magic
The new super-powerful drag-and-drop feature is a commendable addition to Microsoft's web browser, as it's always good to have more ways to do things, and it'll be especially useful for touchscreen laptop or tablet users who want to quickly open links in a new tab. (The users who are not working on the mouse and therefore miss the shortcut of double clicking on the mouse wheel).
Of course, the feature is still being tested – just like the link examples mentioned – but we can't see any reason why Microsoft wouldn't bring these capabilities to the release version of Edge. Our fingers are crossed, as always, that nothing untoward happens that could derail the progress of either feature.
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