What you need to know
- Google rolls out the new Journeys feature for the Chrome desktop browser.
- Google also enables new Chrome Actions to get more things done from the address bar.
- New Chrome widgets are rolling out for Android devices for quick access to searches and other features.
Google is finally rolling out Journeys for Chrome desktop browsers, a feature that the company has been testing since October and hopes will enhance your browser history.
Journeys takes your past searches and page visits and groups them together based on the topic. This way, it may be easier to pick up where you left off, whether it was a page you visited today or months ago. Additionally, Google will suggest other relevant searches related to the pages you visited to help you expand your search.
Google says it considers how often you visit certain sites, so it'll show you the most relevant items first. And users have the freedom to delete individual items, groups of items, or turn the feature off. However, Google notes that Journeys only saves this information on-device, so your history is safe with you.
Journeys is available on the best laptops in English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Turkish. Google is looking to expand the feature so you can view Journeys on multiple devices. To access the feature, you can visit the Journeys page in Chrome History or click on "Resume your research" when typing a related term in the Omnibox to pick up where you left off.
Speaking of the address bar, Google is adding more Chrome Actions. For anyone not familiar with how to use Chrome Actions, it's a feature that lets you perform various functions in Chrome without having to dig for certain settings. Now you can perform the following actions just by typing them into your address bar:
- "Manage settings"
- "Customize Chrome"
- "View your Chrome history"
- "Manage accessibility settings"
- "Share this tab"
- "Play Chrome Dino game"
Lastly, Chrome is getting some new widgets that will make it easy to perform a search from your phone's home screen, in case the Google Search bar isn't enough. With it, you'll be able to access Lens, perform a voice search, open an Incognito tab, and even play the Dino Game, if that's your thing.
These new features and widgets should be rolling out now, although Journeys and Chrome Actions are only available on desktop for now. Google says it's looking to expand Chrome Actions to mobile devices and in more languages.
