Google's AI Mode Update Tries to Kill Tab Hopping in Chrome

Google latest update to AI Mode in its Chrome browser is designed to keep the chatbot-style search tool always around once you start an online search journey.

You’ll never have to worry about the dozens of tabs open on your desktop again. In fact, you’ll never even have to leave AI Mode, Google’s chatbot-style search tool, at all. That’s the idea behind Google Chrome’s latest update.

Starting today in the US, if you click a hyperlink in AI Mode on the desktop version of Chrome, the link opens right there—with Google’s search chatbot still present as a sidebar on the left side of the screen.

Previously, when you clicked on a hyperlink in one of Google Search’s AI Mode outputs, it opened a new browser tab in the same window. You clicking on that link effectively ended the search journey, and AI ...