New Voice Search on Google: Tech Updates

Google is now rolling out some of the new search technologies it previewed last week, including search by image and voice search on the desktop.
The features are currently only available via Google's Chrome browser, but they allow you to search on the desktop by voice as well as drag-and-drop photos into image search for details on what's displayed.
For voice search, Chrome users visiting Google.com will see a little microphone icon on the right side of the search box. Click the mic and a small box with the instructions to "speak now" will appear. You'll need a microphone attached to your computer for it to work.
Voice-activated searches are already available on mobile devices like the iPhone and Android-based devices. At its search event last week, Mike Cohen, manager of speech technology at Google, said the company has seen the number of mobile voice searches grow sixfold over the past year.
Search by Image, meanwhile, lets you drag a file from your desktop onto the Chrome browser and have Google analyze it for possible people, places, or things in its database. Add a photo from a family vacation, for example and, ideally, Search by Image will tell you where the photo was taken and more about the region. If you don't want to drag and drop, you can also click the camera icon in the search box and upload an image.
I dropped in a photo of the Brooklyn Bridge, and Google correctly identified the location, offering up other photos as well as links to sites about the bridge. It was not able to identify an image from this morning's Murakami Google doodle, but turned up results for "funny dog pictures" when I dropped in a pic of a chihuahua in a wig.
For those worried about security, especially in light of Facebook's facial-recognition technology snafu, I dropped in a photo of my PCMag headshot. It did not identify me, instead turning up photos of other dark-haired individuals standing against a red background.
For more, see the slideshow above.
Over the weekend, meanwhile, a possible redesign for Google's search result pages was spotted by PCMag's David Pierce. It ditched Similar page links, added a splash of color, and added that voice microphone button.