Whether you like it or not, AI is finding its way into all of our devices and the apps we use everyday. From chatbots to image generators, you can’t blink without seeing AI somewhere now. However, I never expected to try and enjoy using an AI-powered browser as much as I have over the past week while testing Norton Neo.
After going hands-on with OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas browser when it first released last year, I have to admit the bar was quite low. Although both it and Neo are Chromium-based browsers, they do things quite differently, especially when compared to my go-to browser, Google Chrome.
While ChatGPT Atlas tries to turn the traditional web browser on its head, Neo follows in the footsteps of Opera Air and its more mindful approach to how you use the web. Instead of taking the actual browsing out of your hands like ChatGPT Atlas does with its agents, Neo focuses more on refining the browsing experience by making it calmer and smarter at the same time.
Don’t get me wrong. Norton’s browser has plenty of useful AI-powered tools built in, but what impressed me the most and could almost convince me to ditch Chrome, is its more intelligent approach to browser tabs.
As someone who often has dozens of tabs open across multiple windows simultaneously, here’s how Neo’s Smart Tab Management completely changed how I organize my browser tabs while making them infinitely more useful at a glance.
From magic to peeking
Right from the get-go, I knew I was dealing with something entirely different after booting up Norton Neo for the first time. Instead of being met with a Flipboard-style list of stories I might want to read when opening Firefox, Norton’s browser starts you out with a dashboard that almost resembles its own OS.
Known as Magic Page, Neo’s default landing page features a minimalistic and calmer workspace without any clutter whatsoever. It has a floating pane with your history and chats, widgets for weather and time, and a central command bar called the Magic Box.
This bar combines a typical address bar with an AI chatbot interface. So instead of typing out full URLs, you can just tell Neo where you want to go or what you want to find, and it intelligently handles the rest.
Off to a promising start, I then dived into everything else Neo has to offer. On the far left side, you can quickly access all your open tabs and favorites. There’s also a button at the very top that lets you quickly switch between more traditional horizontal tabs and vertical ones — a convenient and easy way to test out vertical tabs without having to head to the browser’s settings menu. On the far right, Norton’s AI chatbot, Neo Chat, is just a single click away.
As I normally do throughout the day, I went on a bit of a news dive for potential stories. While reading a report on BleepingComputer, I came across one of Neo’s most useful features: its Link Peek tool.
When you hover over a link, a small upside-down 'U' icon appears next to your mouse cursor and when you interact with the icon, it flips over. You don’t have to use it, but hovering over the Link Peek icon and heading to its two submenus either lets you quickly summarize stories or, as the name implies, gives you a live preview of the site in question in a lightweight overlay.
For instance, in a story about a flaw in Honeywell’s CCTV devices, there was a link to an official advisory from CISA. Normally, I would have opened this in a new tab to look through it later. With Link Peek though, I was able to read the entire advisory right then and there.
While you are technically still "opening" the page in a preview window, Norton addresses the risk of malicious links through Neo’s built-in Web Shield feature. This isn't just an extension though; it's a security layer baked into the browser that uses AI and behavioral analysis to scan links before you even click them.
It’s designed to block phishing and malware attempts proactively, even if you don’t have the best antivirus software installed on your computer.
A contextual chatbot where you'll actually use it
Link Peek gave me a sneak peek of Neo’s AI capabilities, but there is a full sidebar on the right side of the browser if you want to go even further. With a quick click on the Neo Chat icon in the top right corner, you can instantly access Norton’s chatbot.
What I like about Neo Chat over ChatGPT or Gemini is that it’s built into Neo’s foundation, meaning you can bring it up without having to open yet another tab. It’s also context-aware, meaning it "sees" what you see on whatever page you visit.
For instance, when I opened a blog post from PlayStation, the chatbot didn't wait for me to prompt it. Instead, it already had pre-made questions ready to go based on the article's content.
I’m all about cutting clicks and keypresses out of my workflow, and Neo Chat does exactly that. When you’re in the zone researching, having suggested questions ready saves precious brain power and is essentially "zero-prompt" assistance.
Though you can do so via Link Peek, you can also ask Neo Chat to summarize any article you’re currently reading. To test this feature out, I pulled up a data leak story I wrote recently on Tom’s Guide and let Norton’s chatbot break it down for me. Not only was the summary almost instantaneous, it was accurate and did a great job capturing the gist of a story I knew quite well as I wrote it myself.
Neo Chat isn’t just limited to pre-made questions and summarizing articles though. You can also use it as a co-writer to help you put together emails or even social media posts. At the same time, Neo Chat can resurface calendar reminders so you don’t forget about a meeting or an event as well as do things like plan a trip by aggregating data from several open browser tabs. Speaking of tabs…
Not just vertical but auto-organized tabs
If, like me, you often have a dozen tabs open in one Chrome window and another dozen open in another, things can get very confusing. This is because once you reach a certain number of tabs, Google’s browser makes them teensy-tiny to the point where you can’t even guess which site is open in a particular tab. Fortunately, Neo takes all of the guesswork out of your currently opened tabs.
I know vertical tabs have been around for a while but right now, if you want to enable them in Chrome, you need to go hunting for them. At the time of writing, this feature is still tucked away behind an experimental Chrome flag (chrome://flags/#vertical-tabs).
Even after you enable it and relaunch, you still have to manually right-click the tab bar to "Show tabs on side". In Neo on the other hand, this isn't an extra feature — it's part of the browser’s core experience. You can use horizontal tabs as well or quickly switch between the two with a dedicated toggle, but in my time testing Norton’s browser, I mainly used vertical tabs thanks to Neo's unique twist on them.
Neo uses its AI-native core for what it calls Smart Tab Management. Instead of just listing your tabs, it categorizes and color-codes them based on what they’re for — a great reason to have your browser "see what you see."
In the screenshot above for example, I have a number of different sites open, but I no longer have to hunt for a specific tab. Neo automatically categorizes them into themed groups like Entertainment (for YouTube or Netflix), Technology, or Shopping.
While I've become accustomed to grouping my tabs manually in Chrome with Gmail on the far left, followed by Slack and Sheets, Neo does this for me automatically in real-time. This helps turn a chaotic mess of Favicons (site icons) into a clean, color-coded list that’s easy to navigate.
More than another Chromium flavor
Although Norton Neo, like many other browsers, is built upon that same Chromium foundation as Google Chrome, it manages to do enough things differently while being truly helpful to stand on its own. I was skeptical at first when I heard about Neo, but after testing the browser for myself, it’s quickly grown on me.
From those color-coded tab groups to Link Peek and having a proactive AI chatbot available in its sidebar, there’s quite a lot to like about Norton’s browser even if it's a newcomer.
Another great thing about it being Chromium-based is that once you log into your Google Account the same way you do in Chrome, you have immediate access to all of your extensions, bookmarks, and other data.
Now, would I ditch Chrome for Neo? I considered it for a second until I discovered I wasn't able to log in with my work email. This isn't a Norton issue though, and it comes down to the fact that many Google Workspace accounts like my work one have strict administrative policies when it comes to what browser you and other apps you can use. As a result, I was stuck using Neo for personal use and research without full access to my work account.
Who knows, maybe our IT team will make an exception for a browser from one of the biggest names in the cybersecurity business. But until then, I’ll be sticking with Chrome, knowing full well that a calmer, smarter, and easier-to-navigate browser is just a click away.
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