You click on a Google search result. The page is useless. You click Back, and then click on the next result. This page is also useless. Click Return, and then click Result. Again, useless.
It’s a loop we’re all stuck in. Google, in an ideal world, would yield more results, but until that happens, there is at least one way to press the Back button less often, and that is to use the search sidebar in Chrome.
Chrome’s search sidebar places your search effects on a domain to the left of the page you’re viewing, allowing you to switch effects without clicking the Back button once. It’s a real time saver, but it’s not easy to know where you are. it’s or how to start.
Here’s how to find aspects of Chrome and how to use it.
Side search is, at the time of writing, a hidden feature of Google Chrome. Lately it is available for macOS, Windows, Linux and Chrome OS devices. Here’s how to enable it:
If you don’t see the feature listed, it’s probably because you have an older edition of Chrome. Update Google Chrome and check again.
Good to know: when you restart Chrome, all the tabs you had open in the past will reopen, so don’t worry about wasting your tabs.
To get started, look for anything, as you would. The effects will be displayed as usual.
You may think the feature doesn’t work, but don’t worry, it is. Counterintuitively, you need to click on a result before you can see the search in the sidebar. So, any result, and when the new page loads, a G icon looks to the left of the front bar.
Click on this ‘G’ to see the open search sidebar on the left.
Then, any results from the appearance search bar to open it in the existing tab, next to the search results.
Chrome’s look search is a wonderful search tool. Certainly, you can open all the effects that seem useful in new tabs and read them one by one, that’s what I did. But most of us, at some point, find ourselves drowning under eyelashes, although there are some very clever solutions. The aspect search feature helps you search for search effects without opening dozens of tabs.
Currently, Chrome’s appearance search only works if Google is the default search engine. The plan is for all of Chrome’s default search engines, which means that you may one day be able to use this lookbar to search with Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, or any other search engine of choice.
Microsoft Edge, the default Windows browser, offers a feature that, at first glance, turns out to be a search for aspects. With it, you can right-click on any text and then click Search in the aspect bar.
Do this and you’ll see a sidebar on the side.
At first glance, it might look similar, but it’s not. First, you can only activate the sidebar by right-clicking on the text. Secondly, setting a result here opens a new tab to replace the recently opened site. This does not solve the same problem. And Microsoft’s sidebar only works with Bing. Replacing Edge’s default search engine does not replace the search engine shown here.
However, it’s great that any of the search engines have some sort of search service in the sidebar without needing to install extensions. Monitors are wider than ever. You also use this real estate screen.
If you’re about to use Chrome in the first place, read all the reasons to use Edge on Windows 11. If you like Chrome and still notice that it slows down, check out our tips for speeding up Google Chrome.