The address bar in Chrome is getting an AI helping hand

Google is going all-in with AI. The company has introduced various AI features across its products and services, like Chrome. But it looks like they’re not done yet. According to a post on the Chromium Blog, Google is adding more AI tools to its browser. This will come in the form of the address bar in Chrome, which is now getting an AI helping hand.

The address bar in Chrome, also known as the omnibox, is pretty smart to begin with. It can offer suggested search suggestions and URLs for websites without users having to type out everything they need. It’s quick and it’s handy, and for the most part, it’s relevant. This isn’t to say it’s perfect, and the integration of AI into the Chrome address bar might be able to help with that.

According to the post, Google had previously relied on hand-built formulas for Chrome’s omnibox’s scoring system. While it worked great in many cases, it was quite inflexible. This meant that keeping it updated to new scenarios proved to be tricky. This is where the use of machine learning comes in.

By using machine learning, the system can learn what is relevant and what isn’t. For example, if you select a suggested URL and then immediately go back to the address bar to search again, the system will decrease the relevancy score of the URL. This means that in the future, that URL won’t be suggested or will have a lower priority.

The use of machine learning can also be used to make more dynamic suggestions. A search done in the day versus done at night could yield different results. It is a pretty cool use of AI and hopefully this will result in more accurate search results in the future.