Google Chrome’s latest update brings new AI tools to search features
Three new AI-powered features are being introduced to Google Chrome to make it easier to find what you need on the internet.
An official update from Google’s Parisa Tabriz, the vice president for Chrome, outlined the updates to be introduced, which will bring elements of Google Lens and Gemini technology to a wider audience, outside of the main applications.
Google Chrome users in the U.S. will be the first to receive the new AI features in the coming weeks, with no further information given regarding other regions at this stage.
The first enhancement will see a change to the way Google Lens operates, bringing it more in line with the Circle to Search facility on contemporary Pixel smartphones. Selecting the tool’s icon in the browser URL will enable onscreen objects to be selected. Users can also gain access by opening the “right-click or three-dot menu.”
Then, once you click on an object it will be highlighted and visual matches will be listed in a side panel, just like an ordinary Google search. There will be further filtering options, as well as multi-search, allowing you to tailor the request “by color, brand, or another detail”.
Google Gemini can be utilized to further explore a particular item or topic, by asking questions for more depth. As part of the update to Google Lens, certain searches will activate an AI overview but this is dependent on the initial inquiry.
This aspect appeared briefly in a recent Chrome beta, so despite its short-lived time in testing, Google must be confident of its worth to give it a fast-tracked release.
New AI-powered features are coming to Chrome desktop!
Using the latest Google AI and Gemini models, you can search and ask questions about what you see with #GoogleLens, compare products across tabs, and easily find sites you’ve previously visited: https://t.co/dOyTo4p8FY pic.twitter.com/iCVzIIiS84
— Chrome (@googlechrome) August 1, 2024
Google Chrome browser history gets a generative AI boost
Another new feature to Chrome is Tab Compare, which will collate several tabs of similar products into a single window, generating an AI description of each item. A Tab Compare can display different versions of a consumer product from separate brands, listing key information, and allowing you to compare and contrast.
The information provided by Google did not make it clear exactly how this function would work, but more guidance should be given.
Finally, Generative AI will work its magic to find elusive details in your browser history.
You will no longer be limited to keywords and scanning your brain to pull up that web page from last week, as the new browser history will let you ask questions. The example provided was to ask Chrome to show any ice cream shops visited online in the past week, with the results returning all “relevant pages from your [personal] history”.
Image credit: Via Ideogram
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