Google introduces Voice search, Search by Image and Instant Pages

Voice search on mobile devices has been available since long , now Google introduces Voice Search now on desktop.

It requires Google Chrome 11 or higher and a built-in or attached microphone. Just click the mic in the search bar and start talking.

It will take several days for Voice Search to be available to everyone as it start rolling out over the next week Please note Voice Search is available for US English only.

The Voice Search will be useful in many scenarios, such as -

Hard-to-spell searches
Makes searching words you're not sure how to spell quicker and easier.

Longer searches
Search long queries, even really, really long queries, just by talking.

Searches that are just more fun to search out loud
Now you can ask your computer anything.

Searching without typing
Use it in the kitchen, in the garage or anytime your hands might be full.

 

Voice Search

 

 

Another feature being made available is Search by Image on desktop

Search by image on your phone was available since 2009 with Google Goggles. Now it’ll be made available on Desktops too. To search using an image, go to images.google.com and just put your picture in the search box. There are many ways to do this. You can click the camera icon in the search box and upload a photo from your computer or paste the URL of an image from the web. You can also drag and drop pictures from webpages or your computer into the search box. To search images on the web even faster with just one click, you can download the Chrome or Firefox extensions.

Search by Image

Search by Image is rolling out and will be available in most countries over the next couple of days. The Chrome and Firefox extensions are available for download now, but until Search by Image is rolled out to you, you won’t see the extension active in your browser.

Instant Pages

For searches when it can be predicted with reasonable confidence that you’ll click on the first result, Instant Pages technology will begin loading that webpage early so that by the time you click on the result, the entire webpage appears fully loaded instantly.

 

Instant Page

Whether you’re typing, speaking, or using an image, entering your search is only part of the process. You’re not really done searching until you have the answer you’re looking for. But waiting for webpages to load adds time to this process - the average webpage takes about five seconds to load.

With Instant Pages in Chrome, you can skip the extra seconds waiting for a page to load and get to the answers you’re looking for faster with webpages that load instantly.

(For more info please check the source Search by text, voice, or image )

Its nice to see such features being introduced as Bing emerges as Google’s strong competitor.