back to article I'm Feeling LUCKY OR LAZY™? Chrome gets hands-free voice search

Google has developed a Chrome plugin to allow desktop users to activate the browser's voice-controlled web search feature just by saying "OK, Google". The advertising giant said the "hotword" will start a Google search without any clicking or typing in of queries required. Users just have to say "OK Google" followed by a …

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  1. WillbeIT
    Gimp

    dunno about you lot but im finding the g voice rec stuff is getting very very good. dunno if ill use it on the dt but its frickin good on mobe (are we still allowed to say mobe?)

    now i can email AND drive.. at last !

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      I don't want to email whilst driving, but occasionally I do have ideas ( or remember some item I need to get from town) when behind the wheel, and a Dictaphone of sorts would be nice. If it isn't a standalone button on the dashboard, then a voice activated system would be fine - I wouldn't want to be fumbling with my phone.

  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Gimp

    Now they can collect voice samples as well.

    And by extension anyone else who happens to be listening in.

    Yay for that.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    RickRolling..

    okay..more than that actually. imagine this is an open plan office environment....could be easily used for NSFW searches being done on others systems 'ok google goatse' - or just craziness as your PC picks up other peoples voice commands. either way...a way to spend a lunch hour or two frivolously.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So Chrome 2013 = Opera 2004

    http://help.opera.com/Windows/9.20/en/voice.html

    Just saying.

  5. Tim Brown 1
    Mushroom

    For this to work...

    doesn't it mean that Google has to be listening continuously to everything you say, otherwise how would it know when you say the magic words?

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: For this to work...

      I would imagine that the plug-in is listening continuously, and is able to recognise 'OK Google' itself locally. After that it sends your voice sample to Google's servers.

      Sending everything your microphone picks up to Google's servers (when 99.9% of the time it is useless) isn't a very good use of their resources.

      Android phones can do speech-to-text locally if required, it's just that the results aren't accurate as when it's done server side.

      1. Mephistro

        Re: For this to work... (@ Dave 126)

        I don't think that's the point. If you ever, for whatever reason, become a 'person of interest' everything you say will be stored, analyzed, and potentially used against you, one way or another, with very little judiciary oversight and no regards whatsoever for your rights. And with this gizmo, the spooks can do it on the cheap, a single implementation for all devices (being a browser app) and a single point of entry (Google's servers, which, as any fule knows, can be accessed and totally controlled by the NSA at the drop of a hat).

        1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
          Unhappy

          @Mephistro

          "If you ever, for whatever reason, become a 'person of interest"

          Or someone you know

          Or someone who knows someone you know.

          Or someone who knows someone who knows someone you know.

          Funny how that "Person of interest" rule can be quite elastic, is it not?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Be nice if it worked

    "The Google Search Hotword Extension currently on works on computers in the United States searching on https://www.google.com."

    Not that Google voice search works in Chrome on my desktop anyway, which is a shame as it works brilliantly in the Google search app on Android.

    1. Bob H

      Re: Be nice if it worked

      Agreed it is a bit of a fail that it doesn't work outside of Google.com

  7. mr_souter_Working

    And this is relevant in the UK?

    unless you have your language set as US English in the Nexus - you cannot use this feature. appears to be the same in Chrome.

    while it is an interesting feature - how about waiting until it is available to the other 99% of us before putting it on a UK site?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unless it responds to my saying "Computer!" with a chirp, and responds in Majel Barret's voice, I'm not interested.

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