Google is working on a link preview feature in its Chrome web browser that enables users to preview links without opening them in a tab.

The link preview feature has been in testing for a while, but Google continues to experiment with its functionality. Previously, it only showed link previews on hover. The latest iteration of the feature adds other preview triggers. Whether all of these will make it in the final release remains to be seen.

Link previews in Chrome

The initial preview feature supported two options. Holding down the Alt-key before clicking on links, or right-clicking on a link and selecting the "preview link" option of the context menu.

Both opened the linked resource in a floating headless window in the browser. The size of the window depends on the size of the Chrome browser window. It is always smaller than Chrome's window.

You can move it around on the screen and scroll the page. Interactions with the open page are limited though. You have no option to open other links on the page or interact with page elements.

To give you an example; if you open a page with a YouTube video or game, you cannot play the video or that game in the preview window.

In the latest version of Chrome's link preview feature, Google added the option to display previews without clicking on links. After updating Chrome Canary to the latest version and enabling the feature, it is now possible to preview links by holding down the Alt-key and hovering over the links in the Chrome window.

Note that you can only preview one link at a time. Once a preview of a webpage is open, you cannot hover over another link to preview it instead. This becomes an option again after closing the open preview.

The feature feels incomplete at this point. It is, for instance, not possible to use the scrollbar to scroll the webpage.

How to enable or disable link previews in Google Chrome

The link preview feature is enabled by default in Canary versions of the Google Chrome web browser. If you use it, you should be able to hold down the Alt-key and either click on a link or hover over it to preview it. The option to right-click is also available if you prefer it.

There is no need to enable the feature. If you do not want it, you may disable it however. This removes its functionality from the browser, including the right-click menu.

Here is how that is done:

1. Load chrome://flags/#link-preview in the browser's address bar.
2. Set the status of the feature to Disabled to turn it off. If you want to enable it, set its status to either Enabled or Default. Both do the same thing.
3. Restart Google Chrome.

Closing Words

Link previews are not a new invention. The Firefox add-on Interclue added link previews to the browser back in 2007. While it is long gone, numerous link previewing extensions exist for all major platforms. These allow users to check out webpages without opening them directly in the browser.

This process offers no privacy or security benefits, and it looks as if Google's implementation does not either. Other Chromium-based browsers will get the feature as well, unless they remove it from code actively.

Now You: link previews, useful feature? (via MSPowerUser / Leopeva64)