Chrome Revolution: Auto Browse and New Gemini Features – AI News – #1 February 2026

A silent war is currently being waged over who will define the future of the internet. While competitors like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Arc Browser experiment with AI assistants, Google is bringing out its big guns. The Mountain View giant has just announced updates that ensure Chrome stops being just a window to the world—it is becoming your active personal assistant.

What’s new in Chrome?

Until now, Chrome’s autofill handled simple tasks like entering addresses or credit card numbers. However, Google is taking a massive leap forward by introducing Auto Browse—a feature based on AI agents, available to AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the U.S.

This is a paradigm shift that could significantly disrupt the SEO industry. Auto Browse allows users to delegate complex, multi-step tasks to artificial intelligence. Instead of manually clicking through dozens of pages, the user can issue a command, and Chrome handles the rest.

Google demonstrated the capabilities of Auto Browse with real-life examples. The system can:

Crucially for the retail sector, Google is introducing the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). This is a new open standard co-developed with giants like Shopify, Etsy, and Wayfair, designed to facilitate AI agents in making purchases on behalf of users seamlessly and securely.

Google is moving away from “floating” windows in favor of a persistent side panel designed to serve as a command center. The Gemini assistant now “lives” alongside your open tabs, understanding the context of what you are browsing.

For marketing and SEO specialists, this tool could prove invaluable for research. Gemini in the side panel can group information from multiple open tabs, compare products, or summarize reviews from different sites without the need to switch windows.

A strong point of this new update is the deep integration with other services through Connected Apps. From the Chrome side panel, users will be able to:

In the coming months, Google also plans to roll out Personal Intelligence, a feature that will allow the AI to better understand context based on conversation history and specific user instructions.

An interesting feature for content creators is the native implementation of the Nano Banana model. This allows for the editing and transformation of images directly within the browser window. Instead of downloading a graphic, editing it in external software, and re-uploading it, the user can simply type a prompt in the side panel to, for example, redesign a living room in a photo or transform data into an infographic.

Introducing agents capable of performing operations on our accounts raises legitimate security concerns. Google assures users that Auto Browse has been designed with full user control in mind.

The system is programmed to pause at key moments and ask for explicit confirmation (“Take over task”), especially in the case of payments or logins. The AI utilizes Google Password Manager, but—as the company declares—the AI models themselves do not have direct access to credentials.

Google’s move is a clear response to the growing popularity of “AI browsers.” By introducing these features to the world’s most popular browser, Google aims to prove that Chrome still sets the standard. For the SEO industry, this means the need to closely monitor how traffic generated by AI agents will affect analytics and online visibility.

The world of AI changes daily, and these changes directly impact your business’s online visibility. Don’t let the revolution pass you by. Sign up for the Delante newsletter to receive the latest news, expert analyses, and proven SEO strategies straight to your inbox.

Source: https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/chrome/gemini-3-auto-browse/