Microsoft is Testing Quick Searches and Meet Now on Edge New Tab Page

Microsoft is testing Recommended Searches accompanied by Meet Now on New Tab Page of the latest version of the Chrome Canary. Earlier, Microsoft introduced the option to view or hide Quick link on Edge New Tab Page.

Following the Vertical Tabs feature, The company is testing the feature with limited users under Controlled Rollout, so lucky users will get access to this feature. At least as of writing this blog post.

The Recommended or Trending search feature shows popular search queries below the search box on the New Tab Page. The feature was first spotted by Richard and shared the screenshot on Twitter.

In reply to Richard tweet, Leopeva reported that about the Meet now button accompanied by a message which reads “Host a video meeting in one click! No sign ups required“

Just like Recommended Searches, the Meet now button also appears below the Search box on the New Tab Page of Edge browser. Clicking on it will take you to Host a video meeting page of Skype, where interested users can create a video meeting using Skype Meet meeting without creating an account or downloading anything.

With this, Microsoft is now encouraging users to use Skype’s Meet now. We have already reported, How Microsoft is Showing ads for Skype Meet on Windows 10 Search UI.

Turn off Recommended Searches and Meet Now in Edge

In case, you’re not happy with Recommended Searches, fret not! There’s a (…) button available on the next to searches. Click on it and then select ‘Hide Recommendation‘ option.

Alternatively, Microsoft has added a new entry in the Page layout flyout available on Edge New Tab Page. From there, you can disable both Recommended searches and Meet now button. Here’s what you need to do:

Click on the Page Layout (Gear) icon available on the left side of the New Tab Page of Edge browser.

Here, select Custom and then move the slider for Recommended searches to OFF position. You can check the illustration.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t hide Meet now button from the New Tab Page. Whenever we get a the way to hide it. We will definitely update the article with solution.

Again the feature is rolled by Microsoft as Controlled rolled out so it is possible you might not see the same settings. Thanks, Winaero for sharing this.

Some users might find this useful, while other people might find it annoying. What are your thoughts about this addition on Edge NTP? We would like to hear from you in the comments.