Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET
You may have noticed an odd little button that sometimes appears in your Chrome browser bar labeled “Google Lens.” It’s actually been there for a number of years now, although it doesn’t always show up. But have you ever used it? Have you even given it a second thought? Or has it just become one more piece of digital clutter your brain edits out?
We’ve covered Google Lens before on ZDNET. We’ve done so a number of times, in fact. But we’ve always covered it as a feature of smartphones.
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For smartphones, Google Lens makes a lot of sense. You can point it at a flower and get a read on the kind of plant it is. You can point it at an object or a landmark and Google will tell you what it is. You can point it at text in a language you don’t speak, and it will translate for you. When traveling, this is a powerful tool.
I’ve found it very helpful right in my Chrome desktop browser as well. That’s what we’re going to be looking at today.
How to use Google Lens in the browser bar
What’s it doing in your browser bar? Why does it seem to come and go? Sometimes it’s there; sometimes it’s not. What’s up with that?
Enabling it
Let’s start with making sure it’s on your browser bar. If you don’t see it up there, it might not be enabled. To enable the Google Lens shortcut, right-click on your browser bar and select Always Show Google Lens Shortcut.
Right-click on the browser bar, then select Always Show.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
The thing is, Chrome won’t always show the Google Lens shortcut, even if you’ve selected Always Show Google Lens Shortcut. That’s because the feature only shows up when Chrome thinks the page has a media element that Lens can act upon. Also, the scripting of some pages interferes with the action nature of this button, meaning that it might not show on all pages.
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With that in mind, there are two other ways to trigger Google Lens.
Using the context menu on an image
You can right-click on an image and get a Google Lens option in the menu.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
In the above image, I right-clicked on an Unsplash photo of a car, and then used Google Lens. The feature was able to tell me the model of the car, which turned out to be an old BMW E30, produced from 1982 to 1994.
The second time I ran Google Lens on that picture, it identified the car as a 1987 BMW 325i. It turns out both of these are true, because E30 is the body style and platform, while 325i refers to the trim level and engine designation. And now you know.
From the three-dot menu
You can also trigger Google Lens from the three-dot menu at the upper right of the screen.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
This works the same way as the Google Lens button, in that it allows you to select something from the page, whether it’s an image or text.
What can you do with Google Lens?
- Faster reverse image searching
Probably my favorite use of Google Lens in my browser is reverse image searching. You can feed it an image, and Lens will do its best to tell you what you’re looking at.
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To be fair, this is not a new Google capability. As far back as 2011 or 2012, you could go into Google Image Search, upload an image, and get search results.
But Lens makes it oh so much faster. Let’s go back to Unsplash for another helpful image. In this example, I right-clicked on a castle-like building and requested Search with Google Lens. From that one action, I found out all about the Ightham Mote manor house in Kent.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
Here’s another example. Six skyscrapers in China.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
What kind of plant is this?
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
This fun little bike is a Yamaha RX 100.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
2. Translations
I also sometimes use Google Lens for translations. While Google Translate does a fair job on text you can paste into a field, what about text that’s in a scan or on a sign? Well, like the screenshot I used Google and ChatGPT to translate in April, don’t expect the AI to be perfect.
The neon sign below translates to either “May your business flourish” or “Prosperous business.”
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
But wait, there’s more. The second time I ran Google Lens, it translated the sign to “Main Idea Arrives.” I’m hoping it arrives soon. The sooner the better.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
3. Product identification
I also find Google Lens useful for figuring out what products are in a picture on a site. This happens to be a picture I took of my own camera, but while the Sony logo is visible, the camera model is not identified in the image. Google Lens was able to quickly identify it.
David Gewirtz/ZDNET
4. Explaining charts and tables
I’ll end with one of my favorite uses of Google Lens (and a cool hack). The table shown below is from my programming languages popularity article, and the table represents various takes on popularity.
Screenshot by David Gewirtz/ZDNET
One of my favorite uses of Google Lens is to select a chart or a table, and then say “explain this table” or “explain this chart.” Lens will often do an analysis on the table or chart, and spit out some quick conclusions. It’s a huge time-saver and a very helpful use of the underlying AI.
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Have you used Google Lens in your Chrome browser? Did you even realize it was there, or has it just blended into the background? What kinds of things have you tried it on: images, translations, mystery objects? Have you found it more useful with desktop or mobile? Let us know in the comments below.
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