Chrome 90 will let you share links to highlighted text

Google has started rolling out a feature for Chrome 90, which will allow you to create a link that takes people straight to the part of a page you highlighted. The tech giant originally launched the capability as an extension last year — now that it’s officially part of Chrome itself, you don’t have to install anything extra to use it anymore. 

If you want to, say, point people to a part of the Wikipedia page on penguins that talks about how they don’t fear humans, then all you need to do is highlight that passage, right click and then choose “Copy link to highlight.” You can then send that URL, which ends in a #, to anybody you want. When the page loads, it’ll take them to that part of the text instead of to the top of the Wikipedia article.

The feature could be very useful to students and colleagues working together, or even just to anyone who likes sharing random stuff with friends. It has already started making its way to the desktop and to Android devices, but you may have to wait a bit before you get access to it. The feature’s rollout isn’t done yet, and we’re not seeing it even after upgrading to Chrome 90. As for iOS users, Google says “Copy link to highlight” is “coming soon” for the platform.

Google has also launched a new PDF viewer for the browser, which introduces two-page view and a new toolbar that lets you zoom, jump to page, save and print with a single click. Chrome product manager Kayce Hawkins talked about how the Chrome team has reduced the browser’s CPU usage, as well, and revealed that tab freezing for collapsed groups will soon be available. When that feature launches, collapsed or hidden tabs will use less memory and CPU.

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