If you need to Google stuffing recipes while you’re elbow-deep in your Thanksgiving turkey, a new browser extension is here to help.
In a post to the company’s official Google+ account, first spotted by 9to5 Mac, Google announced the Hotword extension for Chrome, which allows you to use the search engine’s speech recognition search simply by saying “Ok Google” on any of Google’s search pages, including Chrome’s default new tab page.
While the company already offered the ability to search by voice, that feature required clicking on a small microphone in the Google search box.
The interface is reminiscent of Google’s voice search functionality on mobile, but doesn’t have all of the capabilities that Google Now boasts, like the ability to compose email and place phone calls.
It will be interesting to see what companies like Apple and Microsoft do in response to Google’s move. Adding Siri to OS X seems like a logical next step, and Microsoft has its own voice recognition solution for Xbox One and Windows Phone.
You can find the Google Chrome Hotword extension in the Chrome Web Store.
