Google Chrome Update Adds New Search Tools
Google’s latest Chrome desktop update will bring new AI features to its Search platform. These include advanced searches with Google Lens, online product comparisons from different tabs, and a more intuitive way to rediscover sites from the Chrome browser history.
Google Lens, the tool for visual scanning on smartphones, is finally coming to Chrome’s desktop version. Currently, Google has a reverse image search tool that allows users to upload an image to find identical or similar visual results from across the web.
Google Lens is different because it can recognize objects, text, and even complex elements like math formulas by scanning images. Users can activate it through the Google Lens icon in the address bar and search specific parts of the page, including objects from an image, and ask follow-up questions.
Google Lens will pull up visual matches that users can further refine by color, brand, or other details or choose to ask follow-up questions. Google Lens might also prepare an AI Overview with a summary of relevant information for some queries. This feature is rolling out gradually worldwide.
Google is also introducing Tab Compare, a feature focused on simplifying the e-commerce experience. This feature eliminates the need to toggle between multiple tabs to compare information. Instead, Tab Compare can prepare an AI-generated comparison table that sums up critical information like “product specs, features, price, ratings” in one place. Initially rolling out in the US, Tab Compare will become available in the next few weeks.
The third AI-powered feature of this update is the ability to search through Chrome history conversationally. In the upcoming weeks, US users will be able to access pages they visited in the past (excluding incognito mode data) by asking natural questions like “What was that ice cream shop I looked at last week?” Users can enable or disable this feature within their settings.
Google has been heavily focused on enhancing its search experience with AI to preserve its search dominance when chatbots like ChatGPT and Microsoft’s AI-powered search engine Bing are rising in popularity among users.
This doesn’t seem like the end of its AI-powered feature rollout. “There’s lots more to come,” Google teased in its announcement.
