Google has announced that it is rolling out a revamped New Tab page for Chrome, its popular web browser.
The overhauled New Tab page integrates Google's search bar with the browser displaying it right at the center above the recently browsed websites shortcuts. It would even feature the current Google doodles, thereby eliminating the need to go to the Google.com home page.
The updated New Tab page for Chrome is being rolled out gradually to all users. Also, to see the new page, users need to set Google as Chrome's default search engine.
Announcing the
rollout on Chrome's Google+ page, the company said that the feature is built on open APIs so any search engine can create its own 'new tab' page in Chrome.
Google first started
testing customisable New Tab pages feature in December 2012 via beta builds of the browser. It had said that while Chrome users could search straight from the Omnibox (the common URL plus Search bar) in Chrome, it found that many people still navigated to their search engine's home page to initiate a search. So the goal behind this feature was to save people time by helping them search and navigate the web faster, it added. It had also said that it would allow search engines to display the user's search terms right in the omnibox, avoiding the need for a second search box on the results page.
Google had
said that it continued to hone the look and feel, and improve average time from query to answer with the feature, and expanded it to a small set of people using the stable channel of Chrome on Windows, Mac and Chromebooks, who had Google set as default search engine, in August.