Google Chrome is a popular web browser and one of the most popular search engines on the internet. It has a search bar at the top of the screen and you can type in any word or phrase you want to search for. But what if you want to search for something specific on Google Chrome but don’t want to use the regular search results? You can use the new Google Chrome Search Sidebar. This sidebar will show you all of the results that are relevant to what you’re looking for, without having to use the regular search results. To get started, open up Google Chrome and click on the three lines in the top left corner of your screen. This will take you to a page where you can select which type of result you want: results from Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Once you’ve chosen which result you want, click on it. Now, in order to use the Google Chrome Search Sidebar, you need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. If not, then your results won’t be displayed properly. To enable JavaScript in your browser, go to chrome://flags and select “enable JavaScript.” Once JavaScript is enabled, open up Google Chrome and click on the three lines in the top left corner of your screen again. This will take you back to this page where you can select which type of result you want: results from Google, Yahoo, or Bing again. Once again, click on it!
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 of Chrome 108. Here’s how it works, and how to use it.
The new side search has been in stages of development and testing for over a year now, but it’s not related to the bookmarks and reading list sidebar that 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 is ongoing work for 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 using your 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 using feature flags. If you don’t see the search button in the address bar, navigate to chrome://flags/#side-search and chrome://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.
