Google Chrome has been rolling out new features to improve its user experience, such as the Side Panel – a new UI that allows you to access your bookmarks, Reading List, History Journeys, and more from a button on the top right corner of the browser window. It pops open a portion of the right side of your screen without the need for redirecting you away from the web page you’re currently on. The Side Panel can be resized according to your preference (finally!). It gives you plenty of space to see your saved items when you want them and can be collapsed when you don’t want them in the way.
Now, Google has updated this area with a new feature that lets you add sticky notes to any web page you visit. We’ve reported on this in the past as well, but today, the company is testing a right-click contextual menu item called “Add a note” for ease of access. This feature is currently available in Chrome Canary version 113.0.5624.0 and you can enable it by toggling the developer flags chrome://flags/#power-bookmark-backend and chrome://flags/#user-notes-side-panel. Of course, you won’t have to wait long to get this once it rolls out to Chrome Stable as it seems to be close to wrapping up development. This update was spotted by Leopeva64-2 on Reddit, who shared some GIFs for how it works.
To use this feature, simply right-click on any web page and select “Add a note” from the menu. This will open the Side Panel with a blank note where you can write anything you’d like to remember for later. Once you’re done, just click on the blue “Add” button at the bottom right corner of the note to save it.
Here’s where it becomes a super useful feature – you can simply highlight text on any web page, right-click it and choose the “Add a note” option. You can access your notes anytime by clicking on the Side Panel button and selecting “Notes” from the drop-down menu at the top left corner of the panel and clicking on them will jump you directly to the spot on the page where you added the note! It basically acts as an anchor link, and it’s awesome. I’m sure this will be really useful for many people who find interesting tidbits in an article that they’d like to come back to at a later date, for example.
This feature is part of a larger effort by Google to roll out its new and improved “Power Bookmarks”, which we’ve reported on plenty in the past. Power Bookmarks are designed to make bookmarking more useful and interactive, and bring it into the modern age without manipulating the underlying simplicity millions have grown to rely on. Anyway, we’ll keep you updated on any further developments regarding the notes feature. I’m personally going to be using this a ton, so I’m keeping my eye on it.
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