Google Chrome has a new sidebar that should make it faster and easier to view a bunch of search results in a row without having to bounce back and forth between the search page and the websites it links to. Google also says it will bring its price tracking feature to the desktop after a few months be available on mobile versions from the browser.
Google’s blog post explains how to access the new sidebar: After you click on a search result, you will be taken to the webpage and a small Google logo will appear in your address bar. Clicking that button opens the sidebar with results for the search you performed to get to the page (although you can search for something new if you wish). From there, you can click on results, which will open in the tab’s main window.
To me, this seems like a great feature if you’re just trying to find the best result — for example, if I was looking for a chili recipe and knew I’d immediately stumble upon the ones that needed ingredients I didn’t have in my cupboard. Instead of hitting the back button every time I found a recipe wouldn’t work and then having to figure out where I left off in the search results list, I could just hold up the sidebar and see a bunch of recipes in one queue.
This isn’t Chrome’s first sidebar. Earlier this year, Google introduced a new feature that lets you access your Reading List and Bookmarks from a slide-out panel. The search function appears in the same area and even highlights the sidebar button. The feature is also similar to Edge’s sidebar, although Microsoft’s version has a lot more functionality and works more like a separate mini-browser than a control panel for loading search results into the main window.
Google also announced that Chrome will have a built-in price tracking feature that will send you emails when a particular product becomes cheaper. In theory, a “Track Price” button should appear when you visit a store page and are logged into the browser, although I couldn’t show it in the current version of Chrome or the beta. The feature has been in the works for a while. Google announced it last month as part of a major shopping push.
