Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Microsoft Edge can now summarize your open tabs.
- The feature uses Copilot to analyze the details across all tabs.
- You can use this to research hotels, restaurants, products, and more.
Microsoft Edge has long been able to summarize the information on your current web page courtesy of Copilot AI. I’ve used this option a number of times to get the gist of a lengthy article or other page. But now Edge has refined that skill to take it to an even more helpful level.
As spotted by PC World, a relatively new Copilot mode can analyze all your open tabs at the same time. Open two or more tabs and tell Edge to summarize the information in all of them. In return, the browser displays a summary that condenses the details in one fell swoop.
As one example, you could open different tabs with separate reviews of a restaurant or hotel or a product you’re thinking of buying. Rather than going through each page individually, Edge will collate all the information and present it to you in a more digestible format. I’ve tried this a few times when trying to compare reviews of different items, and it’s been a real timesaver.
How does this work? Here’s how I use it.
First, you need to enable the necessary Copilot settings in Edge. For this, I clicked the ellipsis icon at the upper right and selected Settings. At the Settings screen, I selected AI Innovations. Initially, the Copilot settings didn’t appear, so I had to click the button for Explore Copilot Mode.
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Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
At the resulting tab, I toggled on the switch for Turn on Copilot Mode. I then went through the tutorial to learn what Copilot mode is able to do for me. When done, I returned to the Settings screen.
Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
I next had to make sure that the correct three controls were enabled. I confirmed that the switches for Copilot Mode and Copilot new tab page were both turned on. Clicking the setting for Copilot Mode preferences showed me that the option for Focus on new tab page was also enabled.
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Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
I next opened a new tab and then closed the tabs I previously opened. Then I headed to a web page that covered something I needed to research. In this case, my wife and I are traveling to Birmingham in the UK in a few months, so I was looking for reviews of restaurants in the area. Using Bing, I ran a search for restaurants in Birmingham UK. I then right-clicked on several of the resulting links and opened each one in a new tab.
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Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
After closing the tab with the search results, I opened a new tab showing the prompt for Copilot. At the prompt, I typed and submitted the following: “Compare the open tabs and summarize the reviews to give me the best restaurants in Birmingham.”
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Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
In response, Edge compared and summarized the information. The summary showed me the top restaurants recommended in each review as well as the ones that appeared across all the reviews. Now I can surprise my wife (shh, don’t tell her) by taking her to a top resturant when we reach Birmingham.
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Screenshot by Lance Whitney/ZDNET
I’ve also used this option to compare and contrast articles and other pages and have found it a useful research tool. The next time you need summaries for a whole bunch of web pages, think of Copilot mode in Edge.
