Tech giant Google is gradually rolling out a new feature to Google Chrome 87 that allows the user to type commands in the address bar that perform specific browser actions.
According to Mashable, this new feature is called Chrome Actions and allows the user to type in a command, causing an action to be displayed in the address bar search results. When the user selects that action, it will be executed in the browser.
The new option can help user directly search in Google or the engine of choice and even present calculations and unit conversions even before pressing ''Enter''. Its next trick might appeal to a certain class of users who are more used to entering commands in a terminal or envision themselves giving orders to the browser through typed commands.
As reported by Mashable, the new feature called 'Chrome Actions, will let the user type in some keywords and phrases, which can take the form of commands, to initiate some actions. Like other non-search results, these actions are presented in the suggestion list that user has to either click or if it is currently selected already, hit Enter to take effect.
Techdows lists some of those actions that are already known including: delete history, update browser, launch incognito mode, update credit card info, edit passwords, translate this.
Depending on one's typing skills, these commands might be faster than digging through menus or click on things. They are not also enabled by default and the user will at least have to dig through chrome://flags to turn them on.
As the site points out, this is not a Google innovation and other browsers have had a similar feature even before Chrome Actions arrived.