Google Search And Chrome Get New Deal-Hunting Features In Time For Holiday Shopping

It's November, and you know what that means: The holiday shopping season is officially underway, with the big Thanksgiving/Black Friday/Cyber Monday/Cyber Week sales just around the corner. Tracking what kind of deals are available during this period can feel like a full-time commitment in and of itself. It's why deal sites that aggregate and sort the best deals are so popular, but even then, you still need to do a lot of the work yourself.

On Tuesday, though, Google announced some new features for both Google Search and Google Chrome designed to make deal hunting easier for customers. None of them are particularly earth-shattering, but with Chrome being by far the most popular web browser in the world, and Google searches often being the starting point for hunting deals on specific items more broadly, it certainly can't hurt when it comes to seeking out the best deals during this season. As such, Google introduced four new deal-hunting features — one for Google Search, and three built into the Google Chrome browser.

Google has added what it's calling "a new deals destination" to Google Search. Searching for shop deals will now bring up a listing of notable discounts in popular holiday gift categories like cell phones, clothing, laptops, TVs, and headphones. If you're looking for something more specific, you can search for shop [specific product or product category] deals to dig deeper. 

In practice, this new system digs pretty deep. Searching for "shop video game deals," for example, brings up not just actual sale prices, but also popular games at stores offering blanket discounts — like how QVC is offering $20 off a purchase of $40 or more for new customers.

In Chrome, Google has added "Price Insights," a feature that was already available in search. When you view a product page in Chrome, a "Price Insights" button will now appear in the address bar, showing you the item's 90-day price history. 

In addition, Google has added price-tracking notification features to both the desktop and mobile versions of Chrome. On desktop, bookmarking a product page will now include a prompt asking you if you want to be emailed "if the price drops on any site," while on mobile, tapping the bell icon next to a product name will give you the option of getting email and/or push notifications along the same lines. 

Finally, clicking the new discount tag icon in the desktop address bar will pull up coupon codes for the site you're currently browsing, if available. Handy tools for any holiday shopper looking to save some cash.