The browser wars are starting to heat up again as both Google and Microsoft promote their software at the expense of their competitors. Such is the case with a new notification shown in the Chrome Web Store telling Microsoft Edge users to switch to Google Chrome.

Earlier this month, Microsoft started to display promotions in the Windows 10 Start Menu that suggest Firefox users should switch to the Microsoft Edge browser.

Windows 10 Start Menu Promoting Microsoft Edge

Now we have the Chrome Web Store telling Microsoft Edge users that they should switch to Google Chrome for better security.

As discovered by WindowsLatest, when Microsoft Edge users visit the Chrome Web Store, Google will display an alert stating "Google recommends switching to Chrome to use extensions securely."

The notification then prompts the user to download Google Chrome as shown below.

Alert to switch to Google Chrome

On the other hand, when using Google Chrome to visit the Store, this message is not displayed.

As both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are based on Chromium, this indicates that the Store is displaying the notification based on the user agent of the browser or some other identifying characteristic.

Edge does not support Google's Safe Browsing feature

Google told BleepingComputer that they are displaying this message because Microsoft Edge does not support Google's Safe Browsing Feature.

When the Chrome team discovers a malicious extension or one with policy violations, they will remove it from the store and use Safe Browsing to remove it from the Chrome browser.

As Edge does not use Safe Browsing, they would not benefit from this protection and would continue using the extension.

For this reason, Google feels that it is more secure to use extensions from the Chrome Web Store only with Google Chrome or other browsers that support their Safe Browsing feature.

Update 2/20/20: Updated with more information about why Google is displaying this message.

H/T WindowsLatest.com