Prior to Google's announcement of the new Pixel 9 phone and Pixel Watch 3, there hasn't been much of a computing announcement from Mountain View, and I feel a bit left out. Perhaps they heard me, but Chrome for desktop is getting a dramatic upgrade.

Today, Google announced three AI features coming to Chrome: Google Lens (available worldwide), Tab compare, and a new way to find websites from your search history (available in the US only).

And while it may sound over-the-top, these seemingly small changes could have important implications for better web browsing. Let's take a quick look.

Do you know how useful Google Lens is on smartphones? When you take a photo, it searches for things in that image (e.g., products available for purchase, identifying plants and animals, exploring places and menus, etc.) and provides important context.

Now, this technology is coming to the desktop version of Chrome in an important way. Simply click on the Google Lens icon in the address bar (or right-click or invoke lens from the three-dot menu) and the familiar transparent color overlay fades out of the screen.

Beyond the usual suspects like identifying objects in a photo, you can also select text or shop for any item from the video you are watching. On top of that, a sidebar that pops up allows you to engage in multiple searches, giving you a chance to ask Google follow-up questions based on the initial context of the Google Lens results. combined with the AI overview responses, the web browsing experience has great potential to simplify the

Let's say you visited a website and did not bookmark it. With AI, you can simply ask Chrome a question in the address bar to find the relevant page.

To do this, type "search history" and Chrome will prompt you to answer follow-up questions the right way. The results Google selects will have the label "AI Best Match" next to it.

This is essentially a browser-based version of Recall in Windows 11, but done in a way that does not pose a massive privacy risk by taking frequent screenshots.

Tab compare is a feature that uses AI to create an overview of multiple products you are trying to compare and combine them into one tab.

Opening multiple tabs and checking prices, specs, and ratings can be tedious.