Google is working to add a “Link Preview” feature to the Chrome browser. Soon, you may not need to rely on third-party extensions, as Chrome will likely show a preview when you click or hover over a link.

In case you don’t know, Chrome on Android already offers a “Preview Page” option in the context menu when you long Press on a link. Google is now trying to build a feature that simply shows webpage preview when you hover over in the Chrome browser.

To achieve instant loading even inside the preview page, Google will use Prerender technology to load the preview page in the background before the user clicks or hovers over the link.

According to the Link Press Preview document “To achieve instant loading even inside the preview page, we start the preview page as a prerendered page so that we can mitigate privacy and security concerns under the reliable capability control on triggering in an earliest possible timing, i.e. when users press down their mouse, or long mouse hovering.”

The preview allows users to view content in a popup, saving time and bandwidth. It also lets users know whether the content is worth reading or inappropriate.

Google is exploring options to open link previews in a new tab or side panel. However, the company is yet to decide on implementation.

Safari on iOS has a built-in feature to Preview links. Following Android, Google Chrome on dekstop will also get the same ability. The feature is still in development and no ETA when it will be available public.

What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comments below. [Via Leo]

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