Google Lens on Chrome for desktop is getting an ai-powered update that might make it feel like a desktop version of Circle to Search. As part of a Chrome update, Google will let you click a new button directly in the search box to activate Google Lens so you can select what you want to search for. Then, thanks to a sidebar that appears within the tab you're viewing, you'll be able to do a “multi-search,” or a search that contains both text and the image you found with Lens.
This feature could prove to be a more useful way to search, especially since you won't have to leave the page you're viewing to do a separate Google search or open a new tab.
(Note that you've already been able to activate Google Lens with a right-click or from the three-dot menu and see results in a sidebar in desktop Chrome, but what's new here is the Google Lens icon in the search bar and the ability to perform multiple searches directly from that sidebar.)
The update that enables this feature will be rolled out in the “coming days” globally, according to ai-features-august-2024-update”>A blog post by Parisa Tabriz, Vice President of ChromeSearch results that appear in the sidebar may include Google's sometimes bizarre ai overviews, but that feature will only be available to U.S. users, Google spokesman Joshua Cruz said. The edge.
Google is also adding an ai-powered feature to Chrome that will basically let you ask questions about your search history to help you find a link you might want to check out again. Tabriz gives the example of asking “what was that ice cream shop I looked at last week?” to see relevant links in your history about ice cream.
The tool, which will be launched “in the coming weeks” in the US on Chrome for desktop, is optional and will rely on a cloud-based model to drive results. In a briefing with reporters, Tabriz discussed the possibility of allowing the model to run on-device “once we can get quality performance that we think is a great user experience.”
