Chrome is Reimagining Your Browser History As ‘Journeys’
Google has announced the arrival of many new features in its famous Chrome browser. One of them will change the way you return to websites you’ve visited previously. Also, Chrome adds new actions in the address bar.
Essentially, the “Journeys” feature groups the websites in your browser history based on themes. So if you’re in the middle of research and need to get up and walk away, Chrome will group those websites together so you can go back and pick up where you left off with a simple search. It’s significantly easier than just a list of recently visited sites, which can be tricky to navigate.
In a blog post, Google explained how to use this feature. He said: “ When you type a related word in your search bar and click ‘Resume Your Searches’ or visit the ‘Journeys in Chrome History’ page, you see a list of relevant sites that you’ve visited and can quickly pick up where you left off, whether it’s earlier today or weeks ago .”
You can delete websites and website groups from your history, as you’d expect. So if your searches take you to places you’d rather not remember, you can delete them just like you would any other part of your browser history.
Since this is Google, you may be concerned about how this information is recorded and used by the company. Google’s announcement attempts to allay those concerns, explaining that “ currently, Journeys only aggregates history on your device — nothing is saved to your Google Account .” Additionally, you’ll be able to delete “ individual items or entire groups of activities ” in your Chrome settings or disable Journeys altogether.
What else is new in Chrome?
Actions is a Chrome feature that many people don’t take advantage of. You can enter specific commands to quickly navigate the browser. For example, you can type “Clear browsing data” to quickly delete your history.
Google is now adding a large number of new actions. Here is what Google adds:
- Manage Settings
- Customize Chrome
- View Chrome History
- Manage accessibility settings
- Share this tab
- Play Chrome Dino Game
- You can simply type any of these options into your browser’s address bar to accomplish the actions quickly and easily.
Also, Google is adding new Chrome widgets for Android. Thanks to them, you can launch a text search, a voice search, a Lens search or open an Incognito tab directly from your home screen. If you are an Android user, these widgets should come in handy.