~ MamakTalk ~: Google Is Breaking Up Chrome Reading List & Bookmarks For Usability

2021年7月6日星期二

Google Is Breaking Up Chrome Reading List & Bookmarks For Usability

Bookmarks and the reading list feature in Google Chrome are about to become a lot more user-friendly. That’s because, based on a change recently spotted in the Chromium Gerrit, the search giant is looking to split them up.

The change, spotted by Redditor u/Leopeva64-2, places the option to add a page to the reading list back on the reading list button. That button, for clarity, resides to the right of the bookmarks bar. For users who can’t see that right now on desktop platforms, pressing ‘ctrl’, ‘shift’, and ‘B’ will reveal the bar. Or hide it. The “Reading list” should appear in its own segment to the right of the bookmarks panel.

How is this different from how this works right now?

In terms of how this is different, the goal appears to be simplified usability. Namely, by allowing users to add a bookmark in fewer clicks. And the same will hold true for adding reading list pages.

With the current layout of Chrome, a click on the star-shaped bookmark icon — located in the URL Omnibox — shows two options. Users can “Add bookmark” or “Add to reading list.” And that’s what this changes. If the proposed change is implemented, a click on that star will simply show options for adding a bookmark. Namely, a name for the bookmark entry and options for which folder in the Bookmarks bar to add it to.

The option to add a page to the reading list will be placed under a click on the “Reading list” button on the bookmarks bar instead.

When will you see the reading list and bookmarks features split in Chrome?

As noted above, this change appears to be associated with Chrome 93. At the very least, that’s where it appears on the Canary Channel. But there’s not even a flag setting associated with it just yet. As of this writing, it was only able to be activated using the command line. So it could still be quite a ways out.

Of course, if this does arrive in time for Chrome and Chrome OS 93, it won’t arrive for several months. And it’s likely to arrive with several other major changes. That’s if it arrives at all. The current release schedule for the platforms is slated for August 31 for desktop users. And for September 7 for Chromebook users.