While we may still not know when the final version of Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge browser is coming out, we got our first look at its logo this weekend. The redesigned icon was the reward for solving an elaborate Easter egg hunt inside the latest Canary versions of Edge. Apropos of its wave design, the puzzle’s final leg involved beating a hidden surfing mini-game.
Other than still spelling out the letter e, this new logo ditches any element that could possibly make you think of Microsoft’s previous doomed browser, Internet Explorer. It’s really obvious when you lay out the company’s icons from the last two decades side by side, as the Twitter user below did.
Really liked the new Microsoft Edge icon. Looks modern and stands out in the crowd. Here is the history of all the Microsoft browser icons from the last 20 years. pic.twitter.com/aZ3dnq9mbJ
— Parth Shah???? (@parth2eets) November 3, 2019
This time around there’s no sans serif font, no orbiting ring, hell Microsoft went so overboard trying to distance this iteration with minimalist styling that it barely even looks like an e. More like the lovechild of an e and a c, which I suppose makes sense in a way: Chromium. Edge.
There’s one aspect of this new logo that I can’t unsee though. I spent a good five minutes staring at the negative space in the wave trying to think what it reminded me of—a backward comma maybe? No, that’s not it…—when I realised: Sperm. That is sperm. A single little cartoon spermy boy trapped in the ocean.
Others apparently less perverted than me have compared it to that of another web browser, Mozilla’s FireFox. Some people determined to bring back cursed memes have also likened it to a Tide POD, which, I mean, I guess? It’s not square by any stretch of the imagination. Though it may be slightly less toxic to eat.
New Microsoft Edge Logo looks a lot like Firefox, inverted and rotated 180°. Well done, designers. pic.twitter.com/gEkmw1g0ol
— T❘LM△N (@Tilman) November 2, 2019
Whatever it may remind you of, it’s a desperately needed make for Microsoft’s nearly five-year-old browser. Last December we first started hearing rumours that Microsoft was switching out its in-house rendering engine, EdgeHTML, for the open-source Chromium, the powerhouse behind more successful competitors like Google’s Chrome.
Though there’s still no word on an official release date, the new Edge’s beta has been running since August.