Chrome 25 beta adds CSP, voice control
Today Google rolled out the beta version of Chrome 25 with a few intriguing new features. As you may remember, last week the search giant rolled out a beta channel for Android, which took a surprisingly long time given that the mobile operating system is also a part of the Mountain View, CA-company.
First and foremost is the addition of Content Security Policy (CSP) which will, hopefully, help to reduce the threat from cross-site scripting and other content injection attacks. According to Google's Eric Biddelman, this means that users can utilize a "Content-Security-Policy HTTP header to define a whitelist of trusted content sources.Tthe browser will only execute or render resources from those sources."
However, the big thing with this latest version of Chrome is the speech recognition, and this works with the mobile version as well. In fact, it will likely be used there much more than on a PC. Google has been perfecting its speech recognition for sometime now, most recently with Google Now, which was introduced in Jelly Bean (version 4.1 of Android).
Google claims this new feature will allow users to "dictate documents, have a freestyle rap battle, or control game characters with your browser using only your voice". The technology is built into the latest version of the API to allow developers to build this into new applications that can run as web apps.
Finally, Google will also be monitoring your Chrome installation -- which may be a red flag to privacy advocates, but before you jump on your soapbox you need to hear the whole thing out. The technology built into Chrome 25 is looking for ways to speed up your browser performance and, to do so, it will automatically disable some extensions that it deems as detrimental to the performance of the system.
The original intent was to give people an option to add useful extensions when installing applications, but unfortunately this feature has been widely abused by third parties who added extensions without user consent.
If you are already using a beta version of Chrome then you should receive the update right away. If you don't use the beta then you can head over to here to grab it.
Changelog
- Improvements in managing and securing your extensions
- Continued testing of search and the new tab page
- Better support for HTML5 time/date inputs
- Javascript speech API support
- Better WebGL error handling
- And lots of other features for developers
*Opera
I haven’t used Chrome for over a year and that was only to check a site while working on it, but I am going to check out the voice control.
I’ve wanted a speech recognition feature or voice control in Firefox for years specifically for an extra tool for users with disabilities. Speech recognition software can be expensive.
Hopefully this will inspire Mozilla to work on one.
I’m a solid Firefox user and Mozilla supporter and always will be.
I’ve always acknowledged that competition can be a good thing and Mozilla has been a leading innovator over the years in many areas, but this is one thing that I’d actually like to see Firefox follow Chrome on.
Martin, have you had a chance to try the voice control feature?
Hasn’t opera had one for years?
Google is determined to save the PC by leading the horses %# (Ballmer) to water. Pace setting voice controls will soon make updates to productivity Apps that compete with Word, Excel and PowerPoint quick and easy within Hangouts.
Better user/computer interfaces (water) of the past 25 years were led by Apple. Microsoft took its time or ignored as non-threats changes that would not change Windows/Office hegemony.
Google is not saving Microsoft out of charity, or because Microsoft’s crack PR team might complain to the ASPA. Google will do it to preserve competition (it needs a scout team for the first team to perfect its skills). Meanwhile, Ballmer will either drink the water of user-convenience or be sent out to pasture.