Chrome for mobile features voice search by default. All users have to do when they want to use the search engine is say “OK Google,” and the browser beings to listen. It then runs the query and displays results effortlessly. In November last year, Google released the “Google Voice Search Hotword Beta” Chrome extension, which brought the same feature over to Chrome for desktop. It works exactly the same way, though users are first required to install this extension. Some users would definitely appreciate it if voice search was baked into Chrome, and it looks like that might happen soon.
Google’s Chromium team is working on just that, baking voice search into Chrome for desktop. It would be simply available as a toggle in Chrome Search settings, where users will have the option to turn it off or on. When on, it will pick up the “OK Google,” command and start listening. Additional options will include making the browser stop listening for the phrase after five minutes, and the ability to allow it to run even in incognito mode. Features that are tested by the Chromium team often end up making it to the stable builds of Chrome released to end users, so there is a big possibility that the same might happen this time around as well. As far as the timeframe is concerned, one hasn’t been provided as yet.
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