Google Chrome already lets you select sections of your screen to ‘visually’ search, but the tech giant is now experimenting with something different.
For reference, when you Google Lens a page, you have the option to drag and select text and image(s) to search. Alternatively, you have the option to run a full-page search.
Results for Lens are powered by Search, but with a smarter search alternative now available right within Chrome, Google’s looking to give users another way to run their browser-based visual search.
I spent a week using Ask Gemini to answer my most pressing questions — here’s how it went
It is nice to use, but far from perfect
The browser’s ‘Ask Gemini’ side panel might soon be able to run visual searches for you. That too, in a Circle to Search (CtS)-like manner.
Credible browser analyst Leopeva64 first spotted the groundwork for the tool back in March, noting that Google was working on a screen selection overlay. The overlay itself wasn’t functional at the time.
Fast-forward to now, and the feature seems to be going live, at least in Canary.
Pointed out by the folks over at PiunikaWeb, the feature works via Add attachments > Select from screen. When fully operational, users wouldn’t need to head to the side panel first. Instead, users will be able to configure a shortcut, as found by Leopeva back in March.
Once fully operational, users will also be able to circle or simply draw a line over text/images on the screen, which is exactly like CtS on your phone.
Circling will add that general area of the screen to the Gemini side panel chat as a screenshot. You can have multiple screenshots within the chat window at once. You then have the option to run the Gemini search without any prompt or with one.
For what it’s worth, the behavior isn’t live for me in Canary just yet. It will be a solid addition once it lands, especially for more complex visual searches that Google Search just can’t handle.
