New Google Search Features: Instant Pages, Search By Image, And Search By Voice

Yesterday, Google announced (at the Inside Search event) two new features for Google search. Namely, you are no longer limited to searching by text (now search with voice and images), and 0 second page loads for websites on your search results. You can look forward to seeing these features as they are released over the next couple of days.

Search By Voice

Google is finally incorporating the voice search functionality that has been available on their Android devices for years. That is,  you will now be able to click a little microphone button in the Google search bar and speak a word or phrase out loud (SAWOPOL). Google will make a valiant attempt at deciphering your warbling and will display the search results for the said word or phrase. It’s as simple as that. This feature will only be available to Chrome users.

Search By Image

With Google’s new search by image feature, you can either drag n’ drop a photo from your desktop onto the Google Image search bar and google will find relevant information regarding the photo (location, artist, architect, photographer, application, etc.) as well as locations where the photo already resides on the web. Alternatively, you can perform a simple copy-and-paste of an image URL to achieve the same results. The dragging and dropping of an image file into the Google search bar can only be performed on Chrome or on Firefox (via a plug-in). One unobvious use that I have found myself utilizing is using this image search to find other sizes of an image that are available around the web.

Instant Page Loading For Search Results

With the new instant loading feature, Chrome users will experience dumbfoundingly short loading times for websites navigated to in search results. These loading times are as short as possible: 0 seconds flat. You might ask how this is possible. Well, Chrome will automatically fetch the websites in search results before you even go to them. By the time you click on the link, your destination is already completely loaded.