---
title: "Microsoft introduces beta of its new, Chrome-based Edge browser"
publication: "Frontend Focus"
issue: 405
published_at: "2019-08-21"
canonical_url: "https://frontendfoc.us/issues/405"
---

This week's HTML, CSS, browser, and frontend news       

#405 — August 21, 2019 

[Read on the Web](https://frontendfoc.us/issues/405)   

Frontend Focus 

![](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/w_1280,e_sharpen:60/v1566395412/kdpzmzzmsc6gmvx3z5uh.jpg)   

[Microsoft Introduces 'Ready for Everyday Use' Beta of Its Chrome-Based _Edge_ Browser](https://blogs.windows.com/windowsexperience/2019/08/20/introducing-microsoft-edge-beta-be-one-of-the-first-to-try-it-now/) — Available for Windows and macOS, the beta release of Edge is the third and final preview release of Microsoft’s new Chromium-based browser, although Microsoft is declaring it ‘ready for everyday use’ with this release. It also includes the ‘Internet Explorer mode’ for back compatibility with IE 11. Time to get testing. 

Joe Belfiore (Microsoft)   

▶[Is CSS a 'Programming Language'?](https://www.overflowaudible.com/posts/is-css-a-programming-language/) — An hour long conversation asking questions about the label CSS carries, and picking apart if being designated a ‘programming language’ would encourage uptake, or if such characterization may end up being an exercise in exclusion — and ultimately whether it even matters. 

Heydon Pickering and Stephen Hay podcast   [![\](https://copm.s3.amazonaws.com/9d87edb6.png)](https://learn.hasura.io) 

[GraphQL Tutorials for Frontend Developers](https://learn.hasura.io) — Learn GraphQL by doing in just 2 hours with these open-source tutorials for React, ReactNative, Vue, Angular, Elm, Android, iOS, Flutter & ReasonML developers. 

Hasura sponsor   

[Optional HTML: Everything You Need to Know](https://meiert.com/en/blog/optional-html/) — A good look at optional code _(such as the quotation marks of an attribute value)_, and how the balance between understandability and performance don’t need to be at odds with each other. 

Jens Oliver Meiert   

[`iframe`s Are Just Terrible. Here’s How They Could Be Better.](https://medium.com/@bluepnume/iframes-are-just-terrible-heres-how-they-could-be-better-974b731f0fb4) — Daniel Brian, a lead engineer at PayPal highlights some of the issues with using `<iframe>`. _“I really hope browser vendors start to treat UI based iframes as more of a first-class citizen on the web, and help fix some of the above issues which are not poly-fillable right now.”_ 

Daniel Brain   

[Google to Deprecate FTP Support in Chrome](https://www.neowin.net/news/google-chrome-82-will-remove-ftp-support-set-to-affect-01-of-users) — By version 82, shipping in Q2 of 2020, all FTP support will be [removed from Chrome](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JUra5HnsbR_xmtQctkb2iVxRPuhPWhMB5M_zpbuGxTY/edit#heading=h.a4pkgy626xf3). This is expected to affect around 0.1% of users though if you _do_ still offer downloads in an FTP-only form, now is the time to upgrade. 

Paul Hill   

[Custom Elements for The Immersive Web](https://blog.mozvr.com/custom-elements-for-the-immersive-web/) — An introduction to `<img-360>` and `<video-360>`, two new custom elements designed to work with 360° images and video. 

Fernando Serrano  

💻 Jobs  

[Senior Software Engineer - Frontend (100% Remote)](https://jobs.lever.co/close.io/10a1e32b-1a59-48dc-b8f4-e6f0dfae4e20?lever-origin=applied&lever-source%5B%5D=cooperpress) — Do you have a solid understanding of web technologies and want to design, implement, and launch major user features? Apply now. 

Close   

[Frontend Engineer - In Dili, Timor-Leste or Possibly Remote](https://catalpa.io/work-with-us/) — Work with people globally to create change, using technology to empower people, through our programs in aid and global development. 

Catalpa International   

[Frontend developers are in demand on Vettery](https://www.vettery.com/tech?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=cooper-frontendfocus&utm_term=tech&utm_content=grouped&utm_campaign=ad-77580) — Make a free profile, name your salary, and connect with hiring managers from top employers. 

Vettery  

📙 Articles, Tutorials & Opinion  

[Efficiently Load Third-Party JavaScript](https://web.dev/efficiently-load-third-party-javascript/) — How to avoid the common pitfalls of using third-party scripts to improve load times and user experience. 

Milica Mihajlija   

[Lazy Load Embedded YouTube Videos](https://css-tricks.com/lazy-load-embedded-youtube-videos/) — Here’s a clever idea via Arthur Corenzan which avoids using the default YouTube embed — which adds a sizeable number of resources to a page. 

CSS Tricks   

[Accessibility for Web Developers. Get the Whitepaper](https://www.telerik.com/campaigns/kendo-ui/wp-accessibility?utm_medium=cpm&utm_source=frontendfocus&utm_campaign=kendo-ui-general-whitepaper-accessibility&utm_content=sponsored-link) — Learn everything you need to know about accessibility standards, how to conform to the laws and what this means to you. 

Progress Kendo UI sponsor   

[The (Upcoming) WordPress Renaissance](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/08/upcoming-wordpress-renaissance/) — The author asserts that the introduction of Gutenberg has made for a “much richer” Wordpress user experience. Here, he takes a look at the CMSs latest developments, and where it is heading next. 

Leonardo Losoviz   

[CSS Can Do This.. And It's Terrifying](https://www.aaron-powell.com/posts/2019-08-14-css-can-do-this-and-its-terrifying/) — A curious look at a few things you can do with CSS, but _maybe shouldn’t_ (including key logging & user tracking). 

Aaron Powell   

[Variable Font Animation with CSS and Splitting JS](https://css-irl.info/variable-font-animation-with-css-and-splitting-js/) — A look at what variable fonts are, and how they can be animated with CSS and a little bit of JavaScript. 

Michelle Barker   

[The evolt.org Browser Archive Is 20 Years Old](http://adrianroselli.com/2019/08/evolt-org-browser-archive-20-years-old.html) — When this browser archive launched in 1999 it featured links to _80_ different browsers. 

Adrian Roselli   

[Keyboard Accessible Performance Timelines Now in Chromium](https://twitter.com/EdgeDevTools/status/1161050456560287744) 

Microsoft Edge DevTools on Twitter   

▶[Why You Don't Need BEM with Utility-First CSS](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab8RePo5ZYU) 

Adam Wathan   

[Roll Your Own Comment System for a Static Site](https://www.taniarascia.com/add-comments-to-static-site/) 

Tania Rascia      

**📱 Work in mobile dev?** We publish [a mobile-focused newsletter](https://mobiledevweekly.com/?utm_source=fef&utm_medium=email&utm_content=405) every Friday.    

🔧 Code, Tools & Resources  [![\](https://res.cloudinary.com/cpress/image/upload/v1566401822/g8ygevpjlxgj4xgdcwcf.png)](https://larsjung.de/pagemap/) 

[pagemap: A 'Mini Map' for Web Pages](https://larsjung.de/pagemap/) — A neat little idea that’s particularly useful on long pages. This adds a clickable/navigable overview of an entire page to the top right corner. Here’s [the associated repo](https://github.com/lrsjng/pagemap). 

Lars Jung   

[Lexend: A Variable Font Designed for Better Reading](https://thomasjockin.github.io/lexend/) — This new font family, created with reading proficiency in mind, is now available in Google Fonts — you can [read more about its creation here](http://www.lexend.com). 

Thomas Jockin   

[Make Your Images & Videos Load Fast & Look Beautiful with Cloudinary](https://cloudinary.com/users/register/free?utm_source=front_end_focus&utm_medium=sponsored_placement&utm_campaign=dev_sign_up&utm_content=brief_link&utm_keyword=august_21_2019) 

Cloudinary sponsor   

[Quicklink: Faster Subsequent Page-Loads by Prefetching Visible Links](https://github.com/GoogleChromeLabs/quicklink) — We shared this project from Google Chrome Labs last year - but it has just seen an update. It aims to make subsequent page loads quicker by prefetching links that are currently in the viewport during idle time. 

Google Chrome Labs   

[extra.css: A CSS Houdini Library](https://extra-css.netlify.com/) — ..with plenty of fun effects. 

Una Kravets   

[An Accessible, Simple, and CSS-Only Styled Checkbox](https://codepen.io/jensimmons/pen/KKPzxJa?editors=1100) 

Jen Simmons codepen    

🗓 Upcoming Events  

[Web Unleashed 2019, September 13-14 — Toronto, Canada](https://fitc.ca/event/webu19/) — Covers a variety of front-end topics leaving you 'informed, challenged and inspired'.   

[State of the Browser, September 14 — London, UK](https://2019.stateofthebrowser.com/) — A one-day, single-track conference with widely varying talks about the modern web.   

[CSSConf, September 25 — Budapest, Hungary](http://cssconfbp.rocks) — A community conference dedicated to the designers and developers who love CSS.   

[Accessibility Scotland, October 25 — Edinburgh, UK](https://accessibility.scot) — One day of talks. Friendly, open discussion about accessibility.       

**🕰 ICYMI (Some older stuff that's worth checking out..)** 

- How to [take screenshots of pages dynamically](https://bitsofco.de/using-a-headless-browser-to-capture-page-screenshots/) using a headless browser.
- Elad Shechter digs into [the logic of how CSS `position:sticky` works](https://medium.com/@elad/css-position-sticky-how-it-really-works-54cd01dc2d46).
- Max Antonucci shares the [web accessibility intro](https://dev.to/maxwell_dev/the-web-accessibility-introduction-i-wish-i-had-4ope) they wish they had.
- Looking for a CSS foundation? backpack.css is a [lightweight and somewhat opinionated option](https://github.com/chris-pearce/backpack.css) that's best suited to apps.         

A **[Cooperpress](https://cooperpress.com/)** publication — Curated by [Chris Brandrick](https://twitter.com/chrisbrandrick) & [Peter Cooper](https://twitter.com/peterc). 

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