Chrome 11 beta arrives, introduces HTML5 voice interface

By Adam Rosenberg March 23, 2011

This is just getting silly now. Firefox 4 launched yesterday. Internet Explorer 9 hit last week. And Chrome 10 was unleashed at the beginning of the month. The three top browsers all got major upgrades within a few weeks of one another.

Now, Google has gone and made everything more complicated with the release of a beta version of Chrome 11.

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What makes this news especially noteworthy is the addition of support for the HTML5 speech input API. Or, in layman’s terms, you can talk to your browser and have it actually respond. This is especially cool because, as a component of HTML5, any developer can take advantage of the feature. There’s also support for GPU-accelerated 3D CSS, which offers support for websites with 3D effects using CSS. Lastly, Chrome 11 also sports a shiny new icon.

The speech input feature is pretty simple to work with. You’ll first need a microphone connected to your computer of course. Once that’s squared away, any website that supports speech-to-text will include a button that you can click. Then you speak into your mic and the computer magically translates what you’ve said into text on the page.

This is an initial beta release for Chrome 11, so don’t expect everything to work perfectly. But if you’ve already had your fill of the new features in Chrome 10 and want to see what its future replacement has to offer, the option is now there for you to do so.

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Web

Twitch pushing Flash out the door in favor of HTML5 in future updates

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Another string of security holes in Flash has led for some to cry out for Adobe to bury the software, while others are taking things into their own hands, like Mozilla, which recently decided to block Flash in Firefox until it could be proved to be secure.

Flash hasn't exactly been universally loved at any point in its history, but now it seems that many are determined to get rid of it for good. To that end, Twitch announced yesterday that it is beginning to move away from the software for its game live-streaming service.

Computing

Google adds voice search to latest Chrome beta for Windows, Mac, Linux

According to a post on the official Google Chrome Blog, the search and mobile OS giant has added a new version to the latest beta of the desktop-oriented Chrome Browser. The company calls it "Hands-Free Google Voice Search," which, as the name implies, allows you to perform a search query simply by speaking up and activating the feature with a spoken command.
Here's how Google's Ji Adam Dou, software engineer and "Search Whisperer," spells out the new feature and how it works in the blog post, which you can check out for yourself here.
"If you've ever tried to cook and search at the same time – say, when your hands are covered in flour and you need to know how many ounces are in a cup – you know it can be tricky. With the latest Chrome Beta, you can search by voice on Google – no typing, clicking, or hand-washing required. Simply open a new tab or visit Google.com in Chrome, say "Ok Google," and then start speaking your search."
Dou says that hands-free voice search for Chrome will make its way to Windows, Mac, and Linux-based Chrome users "over the next few days." Support for languages other than English will arrive "soon," Dou says, as well as integration with Chrome OS.
Despite Google's claims, the fact that you need to open a new tab or head to Google's home page while in Chrome, doesn't sound like this feature is completely hands free. With that in mind, it'll be interesting to see whether this feature catches on with users, or if it gets push to the side and relegated to "gimmick" status.
In the meantime, you can snag the latest version of the Chrome beta here.
What do you think? Sound off in the comments below.

Computing

Microsoft: Internet Explorer is more energy efficient than other browsers

Acording to a new Microsoft-sponsored study by the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, Internet Explorer consumes less wattage than Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome. The study discovered some pretty miniscule changes between each browser when it came to situations like "Average, Top 10 Websites" and "Fishbowl Benchmarks." However, the introduction of Flash into the test showed a fairly substantial change between browser power consumption, with Internet Explorer consuming approximately 18.6 percent less wattage than Google Chrome.
These aren't massive differences, but Microsoft is making a point of just how much of a difference a small percentage can make by releasing statements regarding the findings. According to the company, the energy saved by using Internet Explorer is enough to power 10,000 traditional homes in the United States for approximately one year. Microsoft also stated that the reduction in carbon is comparable to growing 2.2 million trees for 10 years. It isn't clear exactly why browsers consume different energy amounts, but PCWorld explains that it may be due to the "number of CPU cycles consumed over time."

Another interesting finding in the study concerns HTML5-based websites. According to the numbers posted across all three browsers, HTML5 websites caused the browsers to consume considerably more power than the basic, top ten websites that were tested. We weren't given a list of what Fraunhofer says are the Web's top ten websites, or how it decided upon what websites should be placed there.
“Testing of two HTML5 websites (one benchmark, one video) and one Flash video found that both appear to increase power draw significantly more than the top ten websites tested," the study said. "Most notably, the HTML5 benchmark test condition more than doubled the notebook power draw for all computers and browsers tested, while desktop power draw increased by approximately 50 percent.”
The company isn't prepared to point fingers at HTML5 as a potential power consumer and it doesn't yet have enough solid evidence to suggest that it is drawing more power all on its own. It has, however, sparked interest from Fraunhofer as a potential study subject, and the company stated that "more testing was needed" to provide a suitable answer.
Photo via Fraunhofer