Leaving aside the controversies surrounding generative AI, it is undeniable that this technology has great potential, which goes beyond creating funny images or “robots” that do our jobs. Google demonstrated this on mobile, with advanced features for photography, video and audio recording, and search.
One of the recent features that has attracted the most attention is “Circle to Search”; As the name suggests, we just have to make a circle on the touch screen, and the mobile will automatically detect what we have circled and search for it on the Internet.
The Samsung Galaxy S24s are the phones that launched this feature, thanks to Galaxy AI, but they are not the only ones to have it; The Pixel also lets you circle to search, and now the technology will leave mobile phones and reach our computer.
Circle to search on Google
As you discovered @Leopeva64 on X (Twitter), Google is working on implementing the Surround to Search feature directly in the desktop version of Chrome. Therefore, we can use it on Windows, Mac and Linux as well as on mobile.
While it might seem a little strange to bring touchscreen-based functionality to a platform that doesn’t typically have one, it seems like the adaptation was made intelligently. In reality, the circle function to search for will not come from nowhere, but as part of Google Lens integration which already exists in Chrome.
(1/3) The new Lens UI in Chrome now has an animation similar to the one you see when you enable Android’s “Circle to Search” (in case there was any doubt that this feature will be the Chrome version of “Circle to Search”. pic.twitter.com/NSXoILdoRT
– Léopeva64 (@Leopeva64) May 7, 2024
When we right-click on an image in Chrome, we can search directly in Chrome; This function actually takes us to the image search page with Google Lens, which uses the same technology as on mobile phones to find information about the elements that appear in the image.
Circle search in Chrome would work the same and would only require one shortcut, a button that will appear in the Chrome toolbar and from which we can activate the function on any page we visit. Once activated, we can use the mouse to circle the part we want to search, and Google’s AI will detect the content and search for it on the Internet.
There is no information on when this feature will be released, although given that Google I/O is next week, we may not have to wait long.
