Searching through Google can sometimes be a nightmare regardless of whether you use Chrome or not. You look up something, click on a link and can’t find what you’re looking for. Or you can press the back button or close an extra open tab, to return to the search page. This can be a little easier and we explain how.
Google Chrome has a hidden functionality that makes searching through the Google search engine easier and clearer. Chrome has a sidebar where Google can present the search results. When you click on a link, open the page you had in mind on the right side of the window. If that page is nothing, you can immediately click on the next site in the left part to continue your search. This may sound a bit abstract, so we’ll explain how to do this.
Bring up hidden Chrome feature
The hidden Chrome feature is available on Windows, macOS, Chrome OS, and Linux. You must have a recent version of the browser on your computer. At the time of writing, this is not a standard function and so we have to change some settings to conjure it up. You then proceed as follows.
- Click on Chrome’s url bar and type chrome:flags in
- Press Enter; now you will see a list of experimental features
- Search with ctrl + f the option side search on
- Right click on the small menu to activate the mode (the option Enable)
- Now restart Chrome; the browser presents a button for this at the bottom right (don’t worry: you won’t lose any tab that is currently open)
After restarting the browser, we can try out the functionality. Perform a search via the Google search engine (for example, via the url bar). The sidebar does not appear immediately. This happens the moment you click on a first search result. You should now see a small G logo on the screen; you’ll find it next to the url bar on the left. Click on that after you opened the first page.
From now on you can click on any result without leaving the search page in the bar on the left. This saves some hassle in the long run.
So you don’t have to click on the back button or close all kinds of tabs if you can’t find what you’re looking for and you can end up on another website in no time, without losing sight of the search page. Ultimately, Google wants this feature to work with other search engines, but it hasn’t yet.
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