Chrome ‘Memories’ could be a new way to manage browser history

Google is working on a new Chrome feature called “Memories”. This will be available at chrome://memories. Based on the limited information I have so far, memories will let Chrome users manage their browser history better.

Update 2 – Now Called ‘History Clusters’

Chrome Memories is now called “History Clusters”. It still looks far from perfect, especailly if you are using Dark Mode.

Update – Screenshots

The Memories page (chrome://memories) is now working on the Canary version of Chrome. Here are a few screenshots:

I can now search my memories:

I can also collapse or expand results from a website:

chrome://memories

I am not 100% sure what this feature does. Google has managed to merge a lot of code related to this without giving away this information.

This morning, I found a new Chrome flag that the team added to Chromium code. Usually flag descriptions give away much of what the feature does. This time, however, we do not have anything useful there too.

The flag name is simply “Memories” and the description just says “Enables chrome://memories”

The chrome://memories page is a blank placeholder page for now.

History and Tab Groups

The only progress I could make was finding this hashtag in Chromium code. Within a few other code change requests for the memories feature, I found mentions of browser history and tab groups.

The initial commit for this feature states this is a “history clustering” feature. However, there was another code change that clearly talked about tab groups and bookmarks. This is most likely to group history for bookmarked pages separate.

Conclsuion

My excitement for this feature starts with the name. Google will not name a feature this way unless they have some serious plans for it. If it is not a user-facing feature they could just call it chrome://history-clusering.

We usually do not think about what’s there in our browser history. This could be a way to help us identify trends and manage history better.

What do you think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments box below.

Source: Chromium Gerrit.

February 20, 2021

Google Chrome

2 responses to “Chrome ‘Memories’ could be a new way to manage browser history”

Zed Jones

February 20, 2021

I think I delete my history at the end of every session and wonder why most people don’t for the sake of security so I’m not sure what this feature will add or how wide its use will be but I’m sure they must have their reasons for its inclusion.

Reply
1. Dinsan – Bangalore, India – Digital Minimalist & Content Developer. Drinks Tea and writes Stuff (mostly about Chromebooks). My views are mostly copied from others.
  
  Dinsan Francis
  
  February 20, 2021
  
  That could be a reason for this feature right? I usually do not delete my history. So, Chrome could give me a report and help me manage it? Remove some and keep some? maybe?
  
  Reply