Google's AI Mode Update Tries to Kill Tab Hopping in Chrome

You’ll never have to worry about the dozens of tabs open on your desktop again. In fact, you’ll never even have to leave AI Mode, Google’s chatbot-style search tool, at all. That’s the idea behind Google Chrome’s latest update.

Starting today in the US, if you click a hyperlink in AI Mode on the desktop version of Chrome, the link opens right there—with Google’s search chatbot still present as a sidebar on the left side of the screen.

Previously, when you clicked on a hyperlink in one of Google Search’s AI Mode outputs, it opened a new browser tab in the same window. You clicking on that link effectively ended the search journey, and AI Mode stayed behind, right where it was, in the old tab. This update to AI Mode means that once you begin a search using that tool in Chrome, the search tool essentially becomes an always-on aspect of your user experience.

In an example interaction that Google shared, a user enters a long query into the AI Mode search bar. They are looking for a Ninja coffee maker that can fit on the counter space in their small apartment, makes great lattes, and is easy to use. AI Mode browses the internet and generates an output that suggests a few single-serve Ninja models designed to be compact.

When the user clicks on a link for one of the products, Ninja’s website pops up in the same tab, and AI Mode transforms into a sidebar on the left side of the screen. This allows the user to ask follow-up questions to the chatbot without having to tab back to the original search query. The user asks how to clean the coffee maker in AI Mode and clicks on a relevant YouTube video, which also pops up in the same tab with the search tool beside it.

It’s worth noting that in WIRED’s testing of similar AI search tools for product recommendations, AI summaries weren’t as accurate or reliable as just reading a website.

Another new capability of this update, designed to kill tab hopping in Chrome, is the ability to search multiple tabs you already have open and may be connected by a similar topic. If you click the plus menu in AI Mode, or a new plus option directly inside the Google Search box, you can choose multiple tabs for the search tool to analyze as it comes up with your answers. It’s also possible to attach files and images as part of your query.

While this AI Mode feature revolves around a sidebar, it's separate from the "Ask Gemini" tool that's also built into the Chrome browser. These AI tools are different, and pop up on opposite sides of the screen, but both chatbot-style tools are designed to be enabled and then left as a permanent part of your online experience.

Google is known for trying to keep you Googling. A recent study from SE Ranking, a search engine optimization company, claimed that the most commonly linked site in AI Mode is Google.com. As AI has taken over online search tools, many websites and publishers have complained about drops in traffic. As Google continues to add additional AI features to Chrome, some of the tools designed to help your search journeys be more efficient and context-filled may also have the impact of keeping you interacting with Google’s AI tools for longer periods of time.