As the browser wars heat up, Chrome adds new productivity features | TechCrunch

As AI companies and startups make inroads into the web browser market, the world’s largest browser, Google Chrome, is rolling out several new features. The company on Thursday announced the official launch of a trio of options, including split view, PDF annotations and a “Save to Google Drive” feature designed to more deeply integrate Chrome with one of Google’s other online services.

While these particular add-ons aren’t AI-focused, Google has already integrated its Gemini AI assistant into Chrome. The move was made in response to increased competition from AI providers such as OpenAI and Perplexity, who are messing with agent browsers. These so-called browser wars have forced Google to be less stagnant when it comes to developing and releasing more consumer-focused features.

Split View makes multitasking easier in Chrome by placing two pages side by side on the same tab. Among other things, this allows you to work on two websites or watch a video while taking notes. To use this feature, drag the tab to the left or right edge of the browser window, or right-click on the link and select “Open link in split view”. The latches will automatically snap into place. When no longer needed, you can exit the Split View layout using the right-click option.

Another handy addition is the PDF annotation feature, which allows you to add notes to a PDF or highlight its text from the browser. This means you don’t have to download a PDF and then open it in another application to work with its content. A long time coming, this option could make it much easier to perform basic PDF tasks like digitally signing a document, filling out a form, annotating a file or personal document, and more.

Finally, the new Save to Google Drive feature lets you save any PDF directly to your Google Drive account, instead of on your computer where it can get lost. When you use this feature, saved files appear in the “Saved from Chrome” folder in your Drive, so they’re easy to find.

Today’s update follows last month’s expansion of Gemini and other agent features for Chromebook users. And soon, Chrome is poised to embrace another change pioneered by its competitors: support for vertical tabs. (Technically savvy users can even enable this option now, in the experimental phase, by changing the flag.)

This redesigned way of organizing open tabs was one of the main features of The Browser Company’s first alternative browser, Arc, and is now found in its AI Dia browser. By adding this and other features, Google hopes to give Chrome users fewer reasons to switch.