Google announced on Thursday that it is introducing new Gemini-powered features to the desktop version of Chrome, including desktop lens, tab comparison for shopping assistants, and natural language integration for search history.
After years of being introduced and evolving on mobile, Google Lens is finally coming to desktop. Rolling out to users globally over the next few days, Lens will appear in your address bar and three-dot menu, and when clicked, it will allow you to select parts of the page and ask more questions to get more results.
You can also tap on an object, like someone's backpack, in a photo and ask a question in Multi-Search to find similar items in different colors or brands. Depending on the question, you may even see an AI summary in the answer.
In addition to searching for available products, users can also find out, for example, how much sunlight a plant needs or get help understanding mathematical formulas.
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Google is also introducing a new feature called Tab Compare to help you shop. Over the next few weeks, Chrome will provide you with an AI-powered summary of similar items you may be searching for across different tabs. For example, if you're searching for a new Bluetooth speaker, this feature will surface details like product specs, features, price, and ratings in one place, even if you're looking at these details on different pages.
Image credit: Google
The most useful feature of this update is the ability to search your browsing history with natural language queries, even if you can't remember what pages you visited except for a few details. The company plans to roll out the AI-powered history search as an opt-in feature for US users in the coming weeks.
Image credit: Google
An example of a natural language query is “What was that ice cream shop I saw last week?” Google combines the page's URL, title, and content to display search results.
The company said it won't use this data to train Gemini, nor will it release any information from Secret Sessions, but Google currently can't process AI-powered search history locally, so it uses cloud capacity to return results.
The company introduced AI-powered features such as wr in January.Writing assistant, tab organizer and theme creator. In May, the company Mention Gemini and ask the chatbot a question Directly from the address bar.