If you ever want to feel noticed, just try downloading Google Chrome using a clean install of Edge. On pretty much every step of the way, from entering your search for "Google Chrome download" on Bing to clicking the website and visiting the download page, Microsoft will do its utmost best to remind you that, hey, it worked really hard on Edge, and it's running on Chromium now, so there's no need to use another browser, honest.

Once you have Google Chrome installed, the pestering stops. However, Microsoft may introduce a new feature that will single out people who predominantly use Chrome and ask them if they wouldn't mind pinning Microsoft Edge to the taskbar, pretty please.

Microsoft is trying out making Edge even more of a pest

Windows Latest did some digging through the latest Microsoft Edge Canary build, and it found some interesting variables. One of them has a really long name, "msOptimizeChromePBSignalForPinningOnCloseCampaigns," which has a few elements to it that can be broken down to understand what it's up to.

The last bit, "PinningOnCloseCampaigns," refers to a behavior where the user opens Edge and closes it. This triggers a notification to inform the user to try pinning Microsoft Edge to the taskbar, presumably informing them that Edge uses the same tech behind Chrome.

The part of that variable that reads "PBSignal" refers to a specific user behavior being met. Windows Latest did some more digging and found some flags related to monitoring how the user is acting: "msPinningCampaignChromeUsageGreaterThan90Trigger" and "msPinningOnCloseCampaignsChromeEngagedUser". The former will likely fire if it notices that you've used Chrome over 90% of the time versus other browsers, and the latter triggers if it thinks you're a "Chrome-engaged user."

Interestingly, Windows Latest found a flag that specifically doesn't target Chrome users, which may try to capitalise on reasons why people don't use Google's web browser. Whatever the situation, it seems to trigger only when you open and close Edge. This is pretty easily done if you accidentally click a link within Windows and quickly close it when you realize that it's opening in Edge.

Fortunately, the feature isn't quite ready to go yet, if it ever will. Given how Microsoft is still working on the flags, there's a chance that the company decides not to go ahead with the plan. However, knowing how Microsoft has targeted Chrome in the past, I would wager that Microsoft will forge ahead and make this feature a reality, unfortunately.

If you're curious as to how Edge holds out against the competition, check out these Edge features that are so helpful we wish Chrome had them too, plus these reasons Microsoft Edge is better than Google Chrome. Or you can ditch them both and go for a lesser-used third option.