Chrome’s Side Panel could be Edge Vertical Tabs Killer

Chrome App on iOS allows to save articles to read later, Google is working to bring the feature to Chrome on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android platforms. Initial bits of the “Read later”feature landed in Chrome behind a flag sometime back. To add articles to the Reading List, the user needs to either click on the bookmark icon or right-click on the tab. Google has extended Reading List with Bookmarks and Search box with Side Panel feature.
Side Panel adds Bookmarks and search to Reading List

Chrome’s Reading List or Read Later feature

First and foremost, the Reading List is enabled by default in Canary.

Its button is located at the end of the address bar for easier access.

To add your first tab to read later,

  • Click on the bookmark icon and select the “add to Reading List” option
  • or right-click on the tab and select “Add the tab to the Reading list”.

Reading List menu displays unread and read items.

You can hover over an item under Unread and mark it as READ.

Google takes on Edge Vertical Tabs with Side Panel in Chrome

As Microsoft Edge’s Vertical Tabs is gaining traction with each update, Google is readying Side panel in Chrome to compete with that.

While Vertical Tabs lists all open tabs on the left side, Chrome’s side panel displays bookmarks and history on the right side.

After a long time, to be precise after 5 months, Google updated Reading List Menu with

  1. Bookmarks in addition to Reading List
  2. And search box over the top to find the pages in Bookmarks or Reading list.

Enable Side Panel in Chrome browser

To see the above changes you need to enable the “Side Panel” flag.

  1. Visit chrome://flags
  2. Search for Side Panel and select “Enabled” and restart the browser.

Chrome Side panel flag

If you’re using stable, to use it, visit chrome://flags and enable the Reading list flag and restart the browser.

The Reading List Menu interface isn’t great, but expect Google to polish it and improve further and add new options and features.

What’s your take on Chrome’s Reading List or Side Panel? Have you found it useful? Let us know in the comments below.

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Venkat Eswarlu

Venkat is an independent technology journalist and the founder of Techdows. He has been covering web browsers, Windows, and software news since 2009. His exclusive scoops on Chrome, Firefox, and Edge features have been cited by Forbes, TechCrunch, Wired, CNET, and other major publications.

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