Microsoft borrowed yet another multitasking feature from Chrome after Tab groups. The company has been testing the Tab Search feature for some time, the feature is now enabled by default for all users running Edge version 100 dev channel. Apart from the ability to search through open tabs, the update also brings a new Discover pane, other improvements, and bug fixes.
Finally, Microsoft Edge gets Tab Search
Yet another reason to switch from Chrome maybe. Microsoft Edge brought Chrome’s Tab Search to its browser, currently present in the Dev channel, and is available out of the box without needing to enable the feature by running Edge with command lime shortcut.
Tab Search features:
- Allows to find open tabs and recently closed tabs through a search menu.
- Displays time stamp for each tab displayed in the menu. This helps users to know when they’ve opened or closed a particular tab.
- Aids in identifying and switching to a tab when too many tabs were open
- Works with shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A.
- Let’s you find tabs through recently closed as Chrome does.
- Works with Vertical Tabs also.
How to use Tab Search in Micorsoft Edge
- Open Micorsoft Edge
- Click on the Tab Actions icon on left
- Select Search Tabs or use shortcut Ctrl+Shift+A
Search tabs option in Tab Actions menu - When Tab Search pops up, perform a look for a specific tab or URL, Edge displays them, when you click on a highlighted entry, you’ll be switched to that tab.
Difference between Edge Tab Search and Chrome Tab Search
While Chrome Tab Search displays the menu on the right side when you click on the dropdown arrow on the toolbar, Edge’s feature is not easily discoverable. you need to click on the Tab actions icon on the top left of the screen and select “Search Tabs”. This displays a list of open and recent tabs at the center of the Search bar.
Both Chrome and Edge share a common shortcut, Ctrl+Shift+A for the feature.
Chrome is making Tab Search more useful with the ability to display results even when you type wrong tab titles with Fuzzy Search.
Google is also working to show audio and video indicators for tabs that are playing media in Tab Search. These features may or may not get into Edge or could be specific to Chrome only.
The Tab Search feature is currently available in Edge 100.1163.1 Dev and could make it into the stable in the “week of 8-Mar-2002”.
What’s your take on Edge’s Tab Search feature? Have you found it useful? Let us know in the comments.
More about Microsoft Edge:
Microsoft Edge adds Bing ‘Video of the day’ to New Tab Page background
Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge Scrollbars to get Fluent design
Microsoft Edge integrates Visual Search for Images, here is how to disable it
How to disable Microsoft Edge’s Find on-page related matches
The Tab Search feature was in stable Edge last year and worked great! It was removed in some recent version and moved to a Dev version, why is that? It is sorely missing from stable Edge.
Until they announce as they did in Dev, the feature doesn’t make into Stable.