Google’s new Skills feature inside Gemini for Chrome enables you to save Gemini prompts you’ve used on a web page, so you can use them on others. So, if you find yourself asking for the same kind of help again and again, you can save that request and run it instantly on whatever page you are viewing. It takes the most repetitive part of using AI and removes it, turning a prompt into something closer to a tool.
That shift becomes more obvious the moment you stop thinking of prompts as one-off instructions and start treating them like part of your browser.
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Skills for helping you create a meal
Google has not left users to figure everything out from scratch. Alongside the feature, it has introduced a Skills library filled with ready-made prompts designed for common tasks. These are essentially templates that can be added, tweaked, and reused without much effort. I started there with the meal planner skill. Navigating to a random recipe page for a quiche, I opened Gemini up and picked the skill from the available list. The graphic above was the result.
It took all of the details from the page and extrapolated an entire meal, then transformed it into an infographic. Depending on how you learn and understand information, it’s a cleaner, more organized version of the same recipe, plus two other additions of pasta and potatoes to make a whole meal. Ingredients were grouped logically, preparation steps were simplified, and the entire process was laid out in basic timeline.
Skills for helping you choose what to buy
I then tried out the gift concierge Skill, using it for something that usually takes more time than it should. I had already done the familiar part of the process, opening a handful of tabs with jewelry I thought my wife might like and narrowing it down to a few realistic options. Normally, that is where the real work begins, comparing small differences, second-guessing choices, and trying to keep track of which piece stood out for which reason.
Running the Skill added a structured layer to that process almost immediately. Before doing anything else, it asked a couple of simple clarifying questions about who the gift was for and the budget. That step felt useful rather than intrusive, since it set boundaries that would shape everything that followed. Once that was in place, it scanned the open tabs and produced what it described as a “taste read,” which was essentially a short summary of the style preferences it inferred from the items I had already selected.
That part was more interesting than expected. Instead of just repeating details from the pages, it drew connections among them, noting preferences for understated designs, specific materials, and a balance between everyday wear and something slightly more distinctive. It was not perfectly precise, but it was close enough to feel like a reasonable interpretation of what I had in mind.
From there, the Skill moved into a more concrete comparison. It generated a table of options that included the pieces I had already opened alongside a few additional suggestions that fit within the same budget and general style. Seeing everything laid out together made the differences easier to evaluate. Price, materials, and design were presented in a consistent format, which removed some of the friction that usually comes from switching between pages. It did not eliminate the need to make a decision, but it made the decision clearer.
The Skill even suggested building a matching set around one of the necklaces. It proposed complementary pieces that would work together, effectively turning a single item into a more complete gift idea. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do the same things, but having it all done without anything more than entering “/gift concierge” was impressive.
How to make your own Skill
The library of skills is impressive, but I wanted to come up with a Skill of my own, so I devised a simple idea of turning something complex into a short comic strip explainer. In the Skills library, I clicked to add a skill, named it the “Comic Explainer,” and wrote that I wanted it to turn a website’s content into a simple four-panel comic explaining what was in it. Hitting the icon for Gemini to write it out, the AI made a full Skill based on that request. The instructions focused on breaking down the content into a sequence of panels, adding simple dialogue, and keeping the core ideas intact while making them easier to follow.
To test it, I used a piece from the American Kennel Club about operant conditioning and positive reinforcement in dog training. The original article explains that behavior is shaped by consequences, with rewards increasing the likelihood that an action will be repeated and other outcomes decreasing it. It also emphasizes that positive reinforcement works by adding something the dog values, such as treats or praise, to encourage desired behavior.
Running the Skill transformed that structure into something closer to a step-by-step visual narrative. What changed most was not the content, but the format. The original article builds its argument through explanation and terminology. The comic version reduced that into a sequence of clear steps, each tied to a simple visual idea. It removed most of the technical language and replaced it with a narrative flow that was easier to follow at a glance.
That shift comes with trade-offs. Some of the nuance around the different types of reinforcement and punishment is lost, along with the broader framework of operant conditioning. But the central idea remains intact.
Skills can be useful, especially if there’s something you’d like Gemini in Chrome to do frequently. You don’t have to write it out every time or adjust it for each specific instance. Of course, A Skill is only as good as the prompt behind it, and even a well-designed one can flatten nuance if applied too broadly. Not every page benefits from being summarized, compared, or reimagined. Ultimately, it’s about adding a shortcut to what you want the AI to do, which can be great, but you might miss something along the way.
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