Google Chrome wants to make it easier to search your web history

Google Chrome browser app on iPhone
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Tracking down that elusive web page or niche website could soon be a lot easier thanks to a new update coming to Google Chrome.

The browser has announced a new shortcut that will allow desktop users to search through their history and web bookmarks directly from the Chrome address bar.

Users will now be able to search by typing in the shortcut @bookmarks to look through pages they have saved already, or @history to open up a search of their most recently-visited web pages.

Google Chrome search boost

The new addition was spotted by 9to5Google in the beta for ChromeOS 106, which should be rolling out to users within the next few weeks.

Along with bookmarks and web history, users will also be able to search through their open tabs by typing in @tabs. Entering any kind of @-query and then a space will change the field to help display the results. 

When searching through web history or bookmarks, users simply need to press enter to go straight to the result, whereas for tabs, if there is only one matching result, the user will be taken straight there.

The launch is the latest Google Chrome update released by the company as it continues to improve and tweak the browser for users everywhere.

It follows the recent unveiling of a new feature known as “Freeze Dried Tabs”, which stores tabs as “interactive snapshots” meaning that they can be loaded and displayed much faster.

Google claims that the new feature, which improves upon the previous method of displaying unloaded pages (via screenshots) by allowing users to click links and scroll across the entire length of pages before they are fully loaded, provides a “20% perceptible speedup” in cold startups of the browser on Android devices.

The browser also recently updated its picture-in-picture mode to include non-video content for the first time, giving a boost to those users who love having multiple windows open at once.

Mike Moore
Deputy Editor, TechRadar Pro

Mike Moore is Deputy Editor at TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a B2B and B2C tech journalist for nearly a decade, including at one of the UK's leading national newspapers and fellow Future title ITProPortal, and when he's not keeping track of all the latest enterprise and workplace trends, can most likely be found watching, following or taking part in some kind of sport.

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