Chrome’s “Touch to search” feature

Chrome’s “Touch to search” feature is the new component that allows you to find some information easier and faster. No matter if you’re running to your meeting or if you are on the subway waiting for your bus, this useful reaction will help you to look for anything you need without having to type directly into the search bar. You just have to press on specific words on any website, whether it’s to learn more about a place of interest or to get help with a translation.

Certainly, it is a function that has been available for Android since a couple of years ago, but perhaps you don’t know all the ways in which you can take advantage of it. So, stay tuned because we are going to tell you some of them.

• Get faster translations

Within a globalized society you have probably come across some foreign words, even more when you are surfing the internet and of course, you couldn’t understand it, right? Well, Touch to search can help you, just click on the word that you can’t figure out and, if you have enabled the function in Settings you will see a quick translation on the bottom of your screen. Also, you can swipe the bar up to open the browser and find other related results. Keep in mind that Google can also automatically translate a full page in your desired language.

• Get helpful info in context

Whether it’s a word, a place or a person you’re unfamiliar with, this new feature can put you in context. Then, just as with translations, tap the unfamiliar word, name or place name and Chrome will give you a short information sheet with all the details you need.

• Tap or hold down to get results

Now, taking into account not everyone prefers to use the same gestures, Touch to search was designed to give the users the freedom to choose how to activate it, so even if you tap or hold down the word you need to look for you will have the same experience. But beware of those unique interface websites that disable word tapping, if that’s your case, try to keep pressed instead.

• Use more simple settings 

Google’s intention in creating these kinds of features is to make its settings more intuitive for users. For that reason, the latest update will provide you with a more detailed control of Touch to search, since you can now enable the option Include surrounding text in Google searches so that you can receive higher quality results in your searches, including through translations and definitions right on the page.

• And that ‘s not all!

In order to give you the best experience, Google is working on Related searches. For example, if you are looking for “San Francisco” they are gonna show some helpful suggestions like “San Francisco population” or “San Francisco events” so, as you can see, they will always be implementing new ways to make it easier to find information in Chrome. Look out for more featues soon!