PSA: The “Search in Sidebar” feature is now live in Edge production, letting you see web results to the side of the page

After initial testing with Edge Insiders, Microsoft is finally rolling out the “Search in Sidebar” feature to the production version of the Chromium-based web browser. As long as you’re running Edge version 87.0.664.55 or higher, you can now drag to highlight a word and then right-click on it, then choose Search in Sidebar, and get a contextual search box to the right side of Edge.

Specifically, this new option can be useful for things such as definitions, web links, images, videos. Compared to the “Ask Cortana” feature in legacy Edge, you’re also getting image and video verticals, which show better results related to the highlighted word or phrase. You also can summon it with CTRL+Shift+E, too, without clicking, as an alternate shortcut.

It’s important to note, though that sidebar search is persistent in the tab in which it was opened. You’re going to get the option to close the pane (with the “X) or look up additional information related to other words using the search box from Bing. You’re also able to use the“Open in new tab” button which opens the web results in a new tab.

This feature will definitely be useful for educators, students, and even journalists, too. Perhaps even for shopping, in combination with the Collections and price checking feature in Edge, as well. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Thanks, Bruce Manor for the tip!