Google Lens coming to desktop Chrome as new integrated image search tool

Abner Li | Jul 20 2021 - 10:05 am PT

In a significant expansion, Google is bringing its Lens visual search tool to the desktop web via the Chrome browser.

You’ve long been able to right-click on a picture in Chrome to access the “Search Google for Image” option. This uploads the photo in question to Google Image Search and shows your results in the standard google.com layout.

Moving forward, the right-click menu will show “Search image in with Google Lens.” You’re taken to a brand new lens.google.com/search website where the image in question appears on the left with the ability crop and focus, while web results appear in a right column. Similar to the mobile interface, you first get a quick result that links to Wikipedia.

There’s also a “Top match” section and a grid of “Similar images” and “Related content” with other search terms. Google also gives you the image to “Retry with Google Images.” Meanwhile, you can perform new queries with “Upload” in the top-right corner.

This is a significant expansion of Google Lens. It’s already available on mobile web in Image Search, but integration with desktop Chrome is much more significant. It comes after Google added Lens to Photos on the web in April for OCR text capabilities. On Android, long-pressing on any picture in Chrome gives you a similar “Search with Google Lens” option that is powered by the Google app.

Google Lens in desktop Chrome is rolling out with version 92 of the browser. This comes as macOS Monterey and iOS 15 this fall with add image search.