Google's Chrome browser is leaning heavily toward ai. Instead of just inserting a Bard sidebar into the browser, Google is rolling out a couple of features that take advantage of its models to hopefully make its browser a little nicer to use. They're launching today in experimental mode (you can go to settings and turn on “Experimental ai” to get them), and Google says they're just the beginning of ai browser adoption.
Chrome's new Tab Organizer feature is the coolest: you can right-click a Chrome tab and select “organize similar tabs,” and Chrome will try to create a group of tabs full of similar things. Whether you're shopping for something, delving into some esoteric topic, or just opening all your news reading tabs at once, Chrome will try to keep all of those things together. Chrome tab groups are an underrated feature in general – they're a useful way to keep your things in order, but they require some work to set up. This simply makes everything automatic.
The Chrome Theme Store is also getting an ai update: you'll be able to choose an image, a style, a color, and a few more things, and Chrome will automatically generate a browser theme to match. Google says it's using the same text-to-image model that powers Android's generative wallpapers, which, in my experience, are sometimes strange but mostly very interesting.
The third new ai feature in Chrome, coming next month, is also a good sign of what's to come for the browser. Google is adding its “Help Me Write” feature to every site on the Web; Just right click on any text box anywhere, select the function and Google ai will ask you what you want to write and then generate a first draft for you. Google suggests that you can use “Help me write” to write reviews and emails or RSVP to parties.
That kind of web-wide ai integration is why Chrome could be such a powerful place for Google to integrate its Gemini model, Bard assistant, and the rest of its nascent ai tools. Google's search engine is already like a layer on top of the Internet; Obviously, the company wants its ai to work the same way to help you not only find things, but also interact and create more things. We're already seeing this appear in features like Chrome's Article Summary, and we'll see more of this soon.
If anything, Google is late to the party. Microsoft has been integrating similar ai features into Edge over the last year, and smaller players like Arc and Opera are also making their own ai integrations. Chatbots may be the hot new ai application right now, but browsers are a place where developers can integrate and access virtually anything.
Google's blog post announcing the new Chrome features says there's more to come, including plans to integrate the new Gemini model “to help you browse even easier and faster.” There may not be a Bard sidebar yet, but don't be surprised to see ai in every tab before long.
