Quick Answers in Chrome OS will surface Google Search results on highlighted text

One of the most underrated features of Android is the ability to quickly perform a desired task when you select text. For example, if you highlight a phone number, you will get the option to jump straight to a call. Similarly, highlighting an address will give you the option to open Google Maps. Now, it appears Chrome OS will be getting a feature that works in a similar fashion for Google Search.

We spotted a couple of commits on the Chromium Gerrit that implement a new feature called “Quick Answers.” The code seems to indicate that this is a feature that will work similarly to the Android contextual shortcuts, but for Google Search. The user can highlight text and be shown suggestions using Google’s Knowledge Graph Search API. These are the same answers you see in boxes above the regular Search results on Google.

The first commit is for a Chrome OS-only flag called enable-quick-answers. The second commit adds the Quick Answers Library:

This all sounds like another feature that will bring Chrome OS closer in functionality to Android. Helping you get stuff done without jumping around between apps is always welcome. It’s easier to switch between tabs on a Chromebook than it is to switch apps on a phone, but getting answers with a simple right-click still saves some time. We should note that neither of the two commits we linked has been merged yet, but we’ll keep an eye out on them to track the progress of this feature.

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