Microsoft working on improving Edge's Find On Page search feature

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 22, 2022
Updated • Oct 22, 2022
Microsoft Edge
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All web browsers support local search functionality to find content on the active webpage. Extensions, like the excellent Search Multi Tabs extension for Firefox extend the functionality by enabling searches across all tabs of the browser.

edge-find on page match related

The core search functionality has seen only some light improvements in the past decade. Mozilla, for example, added a scrollbar highlighting option to Firefox to better visualize hits on the page.

Microsoft is testing an improved find on page search functionality in the company's Edge web browser currently. The functionality is locked for most users, but it can be enabled on the browser's flags page.

Microsoft Edge: improved find on page

Discovered by Reddit user Leopeva64-2 (via Neowin), the improved functionality adds four  new filters to the dialog. Find on page is accessible with the shortcut Ctrl-F or by selecting Menu > Find on Page.

It lists just a search box currently on most Edge installations. If the improved functionality is enabled, users will see the following three filters:

  • Related matches -- includes results that are related. A search for virus may return results like malware as well.
  • Match case -- when this option is enabled, Edge will match the case in the find operation. A search for Vivaldi would return all results that include Vivaldi, but not vivaldi, or any other form that does not match the exact case of the search term.
  • Match whole word -- only results that match the whole word are returned. If you search for you, only instances of you are returned. YouTube, among other results, is not returned.
  • Match diacritics -- includes accented characters in the search results.

Edge users who run the latest Canary version of the browser may enable the new functionality, if it is not enabled already.

Here is how that is done:

  1. Load edge://flags/#edge-find-on-page-filters in the browser's address bar and change the value to "Enabled with all filters".
  2. Load edge://flags/#edge-related-matches-for-find-on-page in the address bar and set the value of the feature to enabled.
  3. Restart Microsoft Edge.

All four search filters are now available when you use the find on page functionality.

Closing Words

The extra filters are useful additions, as they help users find what they are looking for. The "whole word" filter may reduce the number of results, as it eliminates every match except those that match the full search term. Case and diacritics may also be useful, and related matches may return results that would otherwise not be returned.

Now You: what is your take on these new search filters? Do you use on page find?

Summary
Microsoft working on improving Edge's Find On Page search feature
Article Name
Microsoft working on improving Edge's Find On Page search feature
Description
Microsoft is testing new on-page search functionality in Edge that improves the find on page search feature of the web browser.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Coriy said on October 23, 2022 at 1:21 am
    Reply

    The related matches flag is present in the latest Edge version, v106.0.1370.52. Though I’m not sure what it’s doing. For example, I tried Edge, Firefox, and Vivaldi, and only Vivaldi got a related match. It related Vivaldi to virus, which could be taken as a typically not-very-subtle Microsoft dig at a competitor.

  2. piomiq said on October 22, 2022 at 11:11 pm
    Reply

    I would suggest to improve vertical tabs, to be tree like. I use Tree Style Tab in Firefox and this is what I could not exchange on something else. Edge doesn’t have such extension.

    1. Anon said on October 22, 2022 at 11:50 pm
      Reply

      Have you tried grouping the tabs together and collapsing them? Seems kind of tree style to me and doesn’t look like that garbage Tree Style Tab in Firefox. The vertical tabs in Edge is already the best of any browser as far as I’m concerned I hope they don’t make it look like the other browsers or extensions.

      1. matthiew said on October 26, 2022 at 9:35 am
        Reply

        Why would you waste time manually grouping tabs together when Tree Style Tab does it automatically?

        BTW if you hate the look of Tree Style Tab, try Sidebery which looks much prettier.

  3. talk shite said on October 22, 2022 at 9:37 pm
    Reply

    there is nothing to improve, hust another over coded nonsense replacement for ctrl + f

  4. Anonymous said on October 22, 2022 at 8:50 pm
    Reply

    Finally catching up to Internet Explorer.

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