It is powered by Microsoft's EdgeHTML which attempts to keep up with standards. With that said, the new Microsoft Edge browser is certainly faster a far more compatible with web technologies than Internet Explorer ever was. The new web browser by MS is a completely new browser that is powered by the same open source software called Chromium, a project started by Google employees which eventually lead to the creation of the Chrome browser.
That's where Microsoft Edge comes into play. With a rather dismal reputation with its Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft had to come up with something to rival the giants in the Internet web browser market which had essentially been taken over by the likes of Google with its Google Chrome. The default web browser for Microsoft Windows in this evolved, Chromium-based Internet browser with new features and support for Google Chrome extensions.
