Report: Sabine J. Schwartz

The New Tab Page of Google Chrome now displays Shortcuts to Previous Search Queries.

Google-Chrome

A new feature has been added to the New Tab page of Google Chrome for Android, which allows users to quickly navigate to past search results. A magnifying glass icon has been added to display relevant search queries from previous searches, along with frequently visited and pinned site shortcuts. By tapping on the appropriate icon, the user is redirected to the Google Search results page for the specific query.

Users can remove search query icons from their New Tab page by long pressing on the icon and choosing to remove the specific search query. After removing icon will be replaced by a frequently visited website favicon. Chrome users who want to disable the new feature that displays past search queries as icons on their New Tab page will have to perform a manual workaround as there is no visible setting at the moment.

The feature can be removed/disabled by typing chrome://flags into the address bar of the Chrome browser and then go to disable the Organic repeatable queries in Most Visited tiles feature. Google may eventually introduce a user-facing option that allows users to easily disable the feature once the rollout is completed, as some users may not want their searches to appear on the New Tab page.

Google OS is said to be working on a feature that would enable Android users to delete their browsing history for the last 15 minutes, as part of a quick delete option that is expected to be included in the three-dot menu.