Google removes the need to type search requests on desktop computers with Chrome Web browser

Making Google search requests on many office and home computers soon won't require a keyboard.

A new feature will allow people to speak their search requests while sitting in front of their desktop computers just as they already can on smartphones running on Google’s Android software. The spoken-request option will be available only on Google’s Chrome browser. It will be activated by clicking on a microphone icon inside Google’s search box. Chrome users will get the new feature within the next few days. Google also unveiled a way to get results by dragging digital images into its search box.

Incredible stuff, but Google Instant itself wasn't without controversy. And by speeding up the search process, and refining it still more on a history-based algorithm, Google risks reigniting controversy with Pages. First, what does it do for a website's pageview count? Does the pre-load count as a pageview or unique visit? What happens if the customer actually chooses to click on a different link instead of the pre-guessed ones? Does all this extra computing and server work actually require more power than before, which could worsen Google's carbon footprint? And there's always the closed-loop cycle to think about, whereby a system like Google's that relies on your past habits to pre-form your future interactions with it can result in a type of tunnel-vision. Imagine Google uses your search habits to pre-populate a particular page in Instant Pages, which speeds up your Net experience and does guess which page you were going to click on correctly. In the future it's possible that a more restricted view of the Net would pop up in its systems based on your previous use, because it kept guessing correctly. It's a potentially limiting behavior, and it could benefit from Google throwing in the odd red-herring or completely random search result.