Yesterday, we discussed how users were disappointed with the decision to retire the Web Select feature. Many users found it a valuable and unique feature, especially for tasks like copying tabular data to Excel or selecting text from websites that had text selection disabled.
After the scrutiny, Microsoft’s Mikhail Parakhin, who oversees the Windows and Web Experiences team, has spoken out. When Twitter users asked him why such an important feature was removed, Mikhail explained through his tweet that it was done due to low usage and the high support cost.
It has a very, very low usage, but is super-expensive to support: a long tail of rare bugs eat a lot of bandwidth 🙁
— Mikhail Parakhin (@MParakhin) September 17, 2023
The tweet emphasizes the low usage of the feature and its associated high support costs, specifically mentioning the challenges posed by a long tail of rare bugs that consume significant resources. Even if a small group of users values a feature, the cost of addressing rare but complex issues can outweigh the benefits of keeping it active.
It’s not uncommon for software companies to retire features that are not widely used or are resource-intensive to maintain. Microsoft may be focusing its efforts on other areas of the browser that have higher user demand or greater innovation potential.
Ultimately, software development decisions like these often balance maintaining existing features, investing in new ones, and optimizing resource allocation. Users who relied on Web Select may hope to see alternative solutions or improvements in other browser aspects in the future.
via MSPowerUser
