Google Chrome is finally catching up to its mobile counterpart with three new AI-powered features. While these additions are certainly steps in the right direction, they feel a bit like playing catch-up.
Google Lens Comes to Your Desktop: A Long-Overdue Addition
Previously a mobile-only feature, Google Lens is now making its way to your desktop Chrome browser. This powerful image recognition tool allows you to search for information, translate text, or even shop products directly from images on the web.
It’s surprising that Google Lens took so long to make its way to desktop Chrome. This feature has been a mobile game-changer for years, and its desktop counterpart is undoubtedly welcome. However, it’s a feature that should have been available from the start.
Tab Compare: Shopping Made Easy
Online shopping can often involve juggling multiple tabs with different product options. Chrome’s new Tab Compare feature simplifies this process by generating a comparison table based on the information gathered from your open tabs, consolidating them into a single page.
Tab Compare is a nifty addition, especially for those of us who often find themselves drowning in a sea of open tabs while shopping. However, let’s wait and see how well it handles complex product comparisons and whether it can accurately extract relevant information from various websites.
Enhanced History Search with Natural Language
Finding a specific website in your browser history can be a tedious task. Chrome’s improved history search leverages AI to understand your natural language queries. Instead of relying on exact keywords, you can simply describe what you’re looking for, and Chrome will do its best to find relevant results.
Natural language search in history is a feature whose time has come. It’s frustrating to rely on exact keywords when searching for something you vaguely remember. Hopefully, Chrome’s implementation will be more accurate and comprehensive than previous attempts by other browsers.
These three new AI features show promise, but their performance in real-world use remains to be seen. Additionally, they raise potential privacy concerns. Google assures users that the enhanced history search will not include data from incognito mode browsing, but the announcement does not clearly specify the extent of data collection and processing required for these AI features.
Parisa Tabriz, Vice President of Chrome, hints at more AI features in the pipeline, indicating a broader effort to integrate AI into browsing tools, including a Circle to Search-like feature. The rollout will begin in the United States and will be phased, with Tab Compare launching on Chrome for desktop in the US in the next few weeks, according to Tabriz.
