Google is stepping things up in the AI agent browser wars.
Google is expanding Gemini in Chrome and letting it do stuff for you
The company is launching a suite of new features deeply embedding Gemini into Chrome. That starts with the announcement that Gemini in Chrome will no longer require a membership fee and will begin rolling out to both Mac and Windows users in the US starting today. It’s all part of the battle for consumer use of AI-fueled browsers, which OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity, and other companies are all fighting to win.
Like OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent, Google is also planning to introduce an ability for Gemini in Chrome to be able to do “tedious tasks” on your behalf in the coming months, Charmaine D’Silva, Chrome’s director of product management, said in a briefing with reporters on Wednesday. It’s designed to grocery shop for you from a grocery list in your email, reschedule deliveries, set up hair appointments, book restaurant reservations, and more, and it will have checkpoints in place for anything that’s considered “high-risk” or “irreversible,” she said. Google did not provide a specific launch date when asked by The Verge.
Other Gemini features are shipping sooner. The new features Google announced Thursday also include giving Gemini in Chrome access to Google Workspace for both regular and Enterprise users, with the rollout starting today, as well as enabling integrations with other Google products, like Calendar, YouTube, Maps, and more. The changes allow Gemini in Chrome to “find relevant information on your screen and also take action on your screen” with those tools, D’Silva said.
“Enterprises are a pretty important focus for Chrome generally,” D’Silva said.
On desktop Chrome, users will now be able to use the Gemini AI agent across multiple different tabs to compare products, summarize information from multiple sources, and recall previous pages from a user’s browser history. That means that starting today, users will be able to can close their myriad tabs and then have the AI agent recall them.
“Say you were looking at team-building activities and it’s the end of your day — if you wanted to pick it back [up] the next day, typically what people would do was leave those tabs open,” D’Silva said. “But now you can close those tabs, and the next morning you can go and say,’ Hey, can you show me those team-building activities that I was looking at yesterday? And we automatically show you.”
On mobile, Gemini was already integrated into Android, but users will now be able to share the entire context of a page, not just what’s currently on their screen, so they can ask “deeper questions,” D’Silva said. iPhone users will be able to access Gemini via the Chrome app soon.
Improvements to how AI agents work in users’ browsers have been coming for a while. Last year, Anthropic introduced Computer Use, allowing Claude as an AI agent to use your browser and complete tasks on your behalf, and months later, OpenAI announced Operator, which was designed to do the same. This past July, OpenAI combined its Deep research and Operator features into one agentic tool, ChatGPT Agent. That same month, Perplexity launched Comet, its own AI-powered web browser. Atlassian just spent $610 million to buy The Browser Company, makers of the AI-infused browser Dia.
- Hayden Field
Google is stepping things up in the AI agent browser wars. The company is launching a suite of new features deeply embedding Gemini into Chrome. That starts with the announcement that Gemini in Chrome will no longer require a membership fee and will begin rolling out to both Mac and…
Recent Posts
- Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney announces questionable national AI strategy
- Kevin O’Leary agrees to downsize massive Utah data center
- This HP Omen 16 deal with RTX 5050 graphics is a steal for video editing — and I can’t find it cheaper anywhere else
- Amazon’s new plan for games: James Bond and AI Snoop Dogg
- How to watch France vs Ivory Coast: FREE streams, TV channels for World Cup 2026 warm-up
Archives
- June 2026
- May 2026
- April 2026
- March 2026
- February 2026
- January 2026
- December 2025
- November 2025
- October 2025
- September 2025
- August 2025
- July 2025
- June 2025
- May 2025
- April 2025
- March 2025
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023