When I select text on a webpage and click “Ask ChatGPT”, instead of opening a new tab or starting a new chat, I’d like ChatGPT to show a small floating panel / section inside the same chat window, right next to the selected text.
This panel should give a short answer (only 1–2 sentences) for that term or phrase, without opening a new tab or breaking my current conversation.
The section should be easy to close with an “X” button, so it doesn’t block or distract me while I keep reading.
You gave forum feedback as the category, which means the way this discussion forum operates.
I think you might be describing a feature of a web browser instead of a product controlled by OpenAI, such as the Firefox right-click feature that could send a request to an AI model (now a sidebar that can be always open).
This was done by opening a commercial chatbot’s web page with a query string including a prompted action and the text…in a new target.
Using browser extensions consumes PC resources unnecessarily; it would be better if this were built into ChatGPT.
I identify what you’re looking at now. It is in ChatGPT (when you aren’t completely rewriting with your own styling and script..). A selection of text will indeed precipitate a floating “Ask ChatGPT” as if a single item context menu, although strange wording, as you are already in ChatGPT.
The action this produces places the selection as text to be referenced, and then your cursor is again at the chat input box referring to the selection. It doesn’t open a new tab, but it does “break the conversation” with a new turn being generated to be read at the bottom of the conversation session flow.
In ChatGPT, you can “erase” a temporary question by editing it, even a message that is based on a selection. Go back to your selection query input message, find the pencil icon in the message’s tool buttons (hovering at right-bottom) and continue as you would have without the aside. Directly referencing what the AI said while you type takes creative scrolling.
It seems your desire is very distinct, and maybe you want not a “ask ChatGPT” that you prompt more, but an instant “help me understand”.
Interestingly enough, this forum does have such a feature for earned-trust users that might be a prototype of a presentation ChatGPT could deliver - you can ask an AI “explain” about some detail you’ve selected with a short prompt, and get a floating box (that still could use improvement - it disappears too easily).
Yeah, the feature in this website is exactly what I want.