'OK Google' Voice Search Comes to Chrome Beta

A few months back, Google released a beta plugin called “Google Voice Search Hotword” that brought hands-free voice search to Chrome. That feature, first introduced in the Moto X smartphone, appears to have graduated to the level of built-in browser feature, as Google has officially added the capability to the latest version of Chrome beta.

Using voice search in Chrome isn’t as easy as it is on the Moto X. For starters, you can’t just bring up search from any old webpage; you’ll need to open a new tab and visit Google.com. You can then take your hands off of the keyboard and activate voice search using the “OK Google” command.

It’s certainly neat looking, and it’ll add a bit of sci-fi flavor to your life, but it’s not creating less work for the user just yet. Once you’ve opened a new tab and landed on the Google home page, you might actually be able to key in your query a bit faster than you can activate “OK Google” to speak it.

Here’s a demo video from Google to show you how it works.

So how could Google make this better? Allow the “OK Google” keyword to be activated anywhere. Unfortunately, this would require Google to constantly be monitoring for audio via your computer’s microphone, and in an era full of NSA overreach and an increasing number of cyberattacks, that may put some people off. It looks like true voice search may be so futuristic that it’s better left in the future for now.

There are some other minor features that come in today’s Chrome beta update (available for PC, Mac and Linux), but they’re mostly meant for developers. For the everyday user, the “OK Google” voice search feature is the highlight of the update.

Have some thoughts on the latest Chrome beta update from Google? What do you think of the new voice search feature? Drop us a line below with your thoughts.

[Source: TechCrunch]