The Intrusive Sidebar
Google Chrome constantly experiments with new ways to integrate Google Search into the browsing experience. One of these features is the “Side Search” panel. When you click a link from a Google Search results page, Chrome sometimes adds a small, persistent “G” icon to the top-left corner of the address bar. If you click this icon—or if the feature triggers automatically on certain screen sizes—a large panel slides out from the left side of the browser, displaying your recent Google search results right next to the webpage you are currently trying to read. For users who prefer a clean, uncluttered interface and utilize multiple tabs for research, this sliding panel is highly intrusive and consumes valuable horizontal screen space.
Banishing the Side Panel
To reclaim your full browser window and disable the Side Search panel completely in Google Chrome, you must modify the browser’s internal experimental flags, as there is no standard toggle for this feature.
Open a new tab in Google Chrome. Click into the address bar at the very top, type exactly chrome://flags, and press Enter. This will load the internal experiments page. In the search box at the top of this page, type Side Search. The list will filter down, and you should see a specific flag explicitly named Side Search. Click the dropdown menu located to the right of this flag (which is likely set to “Default”) and change the selection to Disabled. A blue button labelled Relaunch will immediately appear at the bottom right of the browser window. Click it to restart Chrome. When the browser reopens, the Side Search functionality and its associated icons will be completely removed.