Google has had a lot of success with its Circle to Search feature on Android phones, so much so that it’s bringing that quick-access Google Lens-like capability to Chrome. It’s currently in beta, but soon enough, you’ll be able to drag across your screen to do a photo or text search of anything that appears on your browser.
You won’t find any reference to it in the Chrome 128 blog from last week, though 9to5Google spotted the new capability in some of the latest beta builds. Soon, ChromeOS and Chrome browsers will include a very prominent Lens icon just to the right of the browser bar. When you click that, you’ll get a popup describing how to “Search anything on this page with Google Lens.”
Twitter user Leopeva64 showed off how this feature would work back in May. The Lens UI shades the page blue, similar to Circle to Search. From there, you click to drag around the content you want to search. Chrome will then open up a separate search function on the right side of the page to display your search results. From there, you can refine the search by typing it into the search box on that side panel.
(1/3) The new Lens UI in Chrome now has an animation that is similar to what you see when you activate Android's "Circle to Search" (in case there was any doubt that this feature will be Chrome's version of "Circle to Search"):https://t.co/XQGSzmicpt pic.twitter.com/NSXoILdoRT
— Leopeva64 (@Leopeva64) May 7, 2024
It will also be the easiest way to get Circle to Search on Linux or a Mac. It’s also far easier than getting similar features on iOS without the rigamarole of creating an Apple Shortcut. It does not appear that Google is working on a version for Chrome browsers on non-Android mobile devices.
The feature notes that using the feature sends a screenshot of your page to Google. The feature requires users to enable screenshots in digital assistant app permissions. Still, the word “screenshot” next to a big tech company immediately brings back memories of the SNAFU that was Windows 11 Recall on Copilot+. In that case, Microsoft claimed that all screenshots were being stored on-device, but security researchers found it was way too easy to access those screenshot files on a user’s PC. Microsoft recalled Recall and is still working on plugging all the security holes.
Circle to Search has already received some AI enhancements that help users decipher complex math problems. Google is constantly trying to load more Gemini AI capabilities into its browser, so we wouldn’t be surprised if Lens in Chrome gets more capabilities down the road.
