14 DAY TRIAL // Google Chrome 11 has just been pushed to the stable channel and Google is touting one of its biggest new features, the ability to 'talk' directly to websites with the addition of support for the HTML5 speech input API.
The feature has been in testing, along with Google Chrome 11 which has just graduated to the stable channel, but since this is the channel that most users are on, it's the first time many encounter the new feature.
"Today, we’re excited to make a nifty feature widely available in today’s new Chrome stable release: speech input through HTML," Josh Estelle, Software Engineer at Google wrote.
"Speech input through HTML is one of many new web technologies in the browser that help make innovative and useful web applications like Google Translate’s speech feature possible," he explained.
Of course, having support for any web technology built into a browser means nothing unless websites actually start using it. Google is hoping to spearhead this with support in Google Translate.
"Using Chrome, you can now translate what you say into other languages with Google Translate. If you’re translating from English, just click on the microphone on the bottom right of the input box, speak your text, and choose the language you want to translate to," Google explained.
Speech input is much more at home on mobile devices, phones and tablets, and, unfortunately, Google Chrome is not available for these kinds of devices yet.
But Google is planning on releasing a Google Chrome OS version for tablets and is adding a touch interface in the very latest development builds. Planning ahead and adding support speech input only makes sense.
Google Chrome for Windows is available for download here. Google Chrome for Linux is available for download here. Google Chrome for Mac is available for download here.