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Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Thinkstock.
We all know how to use a desktop browser. You type in a URL or search term, go to the website of your choice, and read the information that it serves. While browsers have added extra security features to protect your data while browsing, for example, or things like playlists to get back to the long lines when you have time, their general operation and their navigation does not have to. have not changed much. during the last decade. Now, a new trend is gaining ground – voice control – and it could give us a new way to surf the Internet.
The voice control on the desktop is not entirely new. Operating systems such as macOS offer accessibility features such as VoiceOver for visually impaired users. VoiceOver provides auditory cues for what's on your computer screen, including descriptions of each item on the screen. For those who are unable to use a keyboard or mouse, software such as Nuance's Dragon Speech Recognition offers allow users to dictate documents or messages. Hardware manufacturers also transfer virtual assistants to the desktop experience for better access to files and information and the ability to control other applications or hardware by voice. But until recently, voice-based computer navigation was still a niche. CNET reports that voice control via a new Mozilla browser could change this status quo.
Mozilla, the company behind the once-ubiquitous Firefox browser, is working on a voice browser called Scout that will allow you to browse and consume content via voice alone. You can give him an order, like "Hey Scout, read me the article on polar bears" – an example given at an internal meeting in San Francisco last week, according to the CNET report. While Mozilla representatives have confirmed that Scout is a project in the initial phase, the company will not share any other information about the company. He told CNET that he hoped to "discuss these efforts publicly when they would be developed".
Mozilla's voice browser offers clear accessibility benefits: with the ease of use of Alexa or Google Assistant, users can request the browser to access a site. Web or an article to read them aloud. But it could also provide productivity benefits to any user. This could save time: users would no longer need to navigate their browser and type in a Google query, for example. It could also better enable multitasking, much like listening to a podcast while getting some work done. Instead of having to keep your eyes peeled on the screen while you search for a new topic, this Scout Browser could read you this information while you accomplish something else: answer emails, take notes in a separate document, edit images, sketch. Suddenly, the browser would be a perfectly integrated accessory in the rest of your working day.
At this point, there are still a number of issues to be resolved. As concerns with the way Amazon may suggest particular brands when you want to buy something generic like "paper towels", a voice-based browser could pose problems with which sites it sources information when one It's not specified – although just, bias is a problem that search engines are already struggling with, so it's not an entirely new problem. Then there is this element of serendipity: When you head to Wikipedia to search for a subject, you inevitably fall into a rabbit hole of related and tangential hyperlinks. Information read aloud may not be as easy to discover as if you had a link. There is also the possibility of adoption by users: In recent years, we have become more and more comfortable using the voice to interact with our phones and speakers smart, but users do not need an audio navigation experience. Or perhaps, as has shown the popularity of podcasts, users may be eager to get their news and information in the ear. However, with digital assistants and accessibility tools already built into desktops, a voice-centric browser could end up being redundant.
Whether the Mozilla Scout Browser is delivered or not, the idea of a mass market-based voice browser deserves to be explored. It is clear that voice control and PDAs are not just novelties anymore; they are becoming more and more useful tools in our daily lives, which allows us to navigate the mass of news, things to do and events that are presented to us every day. The idea could become an important product for the company: after reaching 32% of the browser market in 2009, the adoption of Firefox dropped to 5%, and a browser based on the voice could attract a new group of downloaders. Alternatively, it could be a tool built directly into digital assistants like Alexa, which does not have its own browser. And who knows what Mozilla will learn about the future of how we will interact with online information? We have been googling for almost 20 years, it may be time to change.
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