Google has been testing a new sidebar in Chrome that makes web searching easier, and it’s starting to roll out more widely with the release ofChrome 108. Here’s how it works, and how to use it.
Related:What’s New in Chrome 108, Available Now
The new side search has been in stages of development and testing forover a year now, but it’s not related tothe bookmarks and reading list sidebarthat rolled out in 2021. When you do a web search, then click on a link, a small icon for your search engine will appear at the right side of the address bar. If you click the button, the search results will appear again, but this time in a panel on the right side of the screen.
You can click on a different link in the side panel to replace the current page. It’s especially helpful for times when you need to click through multiple search results, saving you the frustration of navigating back and forward over and over.
There are a few catches right now, though. It doesn’t support all search engines – it (unsurprisingly) works with Google, but not when options like DuckDuckGo are set as the default search. There isongoing workfor other search providers to have the same integration, but not all the popular engines are compatible yet.
The panel also only seems to appear when you’re usingyour default search engine. For example, if you have Bing as the default engine and perform a search with Google, the panel won’t show up.
Finally, the feature hasn’t rolled out to everyone yet, but it can be manually enabled usingfeature flags. If you don’t see the search button in the address bar, navigate tochrome://flags/#side-searchandchrome://flags/#side-search-dse-support(paste those into your address bar) and set both dropdowns to “Enabled.” After you completely quit Chrome and open it again, the button should show up.
