Edge v. 128, launched on Stable channel, deprecates followable web feature

After some time of beta testing period, Microsoft finally launched Edge v. 128 to the Stable channel for everyone. While the update also brings a few improvements here and there, the Redmond tech giant also said that it’s deprecating the followable web feature.

Microsoft first tested this feature on Edge Canary some years ago. Similar to Chrome’s “Follow” feature, Edge’s “followable web” lets you follow websites you care about by clicking a “Follow” button in the address bar. Then, the followed sites will appear in a new side panel on the New Tab page.

But, that was in the past. Microsoft is now killing the followable web feature as per Edge v. 128 on the Stable channel. The v. 128 update’s Beta version, which launched in early August, also includes details on the feature’s deprecation.

That’s honestly not surprising. Not too long ago, Microsoft also axed the “Following” tab from the Collections page, and it no longer has the “Follow this creator” functionality, too.

Reports on Microsoft accidentally leaking URLs of sites that you visit to Bing’s API due to a malfunction in the “Follow creator” feature have also been circulating for quite some time. This feature, which is enabled by default, appears to be misconfigured, resulting in almost all visited domains being sent to Bing.

Speaking of Edge v. 128 on the Stable channel, the update also apparently teased the removal of the browser’s rounded tabs look. It also improves performance and security by fixing CPU usage issues, ends support for older CPUs, and adds new policies for managing Copilot’s access to browser context.