Google Chrome can finally…search Chrome

Google has added a feature to Google Chrome that might make you wonder why it wasn’t there already: the ability to search history, tabs, and bookmarks directly from the Google address bar.

As you probably know, you can open up, say, the Google History (CTRL-H) function within Chrome and search for pages that you’ve opened previously. Ditto for Google Bookmarks. Now, all you need to do is to simply type in @bookmarks, @tabs, or @history into the Google address bar to search those functions.

When you do, you’ll see the Google address bar reflect your choice, with a blue textual indicator that you’re searching through your browsing history, for example.

Searching for your available tabs is a bit less useful, as Chrome will automatically offer to take you to a tab if it detects it’s already open. For example, you can type in “@tabs” and then “PCWorld laptop reviews” for example. But if you have a tab open showing PCWorld’s laptop reviews page, you’ll see a “Switch to this tab” button if you simply type that in the address bar instead. (Microsoft Edge also uses this same “Switch to this tab” motif.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

Personally, being able to search open tabs is a godsend, as I always have multiple tabs (as in, about 50 or so) at any one time. I also tend to open multiple windows with groups of tabs, close them in an effort to clean up my desktop, and then forget that I closed something I needed. A quick search of the browser history should solve that.

As always, make sure that you have your browser updated to access these new Google Chrome features. This feature was only enabled after I updated Chrome to version 108.0.5359.95.

Author: Mark Hachman, Senior Editor