September 30, 2010

Keyboard Shortcuts for Google Search

Google added some keyboard shortcuts that help you pick a search result without using a mouse. After typing your query and pressing Enter, you'll notice a small arrow next to the top result. You can press Enter to visit the page or press the up/down arrow keys to select a different result. To open a page in a new tab use Ctrl+Enter and to open it in a new window use Shift+Enter.


The shortcuts work even if you want to go to the next page of results.


If there's an ad displayed above search results, Google doesn't ignore it.


Unfortunately, the currently selected result is not preserved after visiting the page and going back to Google. That's an important feature which was available in the Keyboard Shortcuts experiment.

The support for keyboard shortcuts is not limited to web search results. You can use the shortcuts in Image Search, Google Video, Google News, Book Search, Google Groups and Google Blog Search.
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24 comments:

  1. JMOctober 1, 2010 at 12:40 AM

    Just Love This Feature!

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  2. RobOctober 1, 2010 at 1:38 AM

    Fantastic! It also supports ctrl-enter to open in a new tab, and shift-enter to open in a new window.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 1, 2010 at 2:19 PM

    Too bad it does not work with google ssl

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  4. AnonymousOctober 1, 2010 at 11:41 PM

    Love it! Love it! Love it! It's a boon for us qwertyphiles.

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  5. mjOctober 3, 2010 at 1:27 PM

    noooo.... how do i disable it?!

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  6. AnonymousOctober 3, 2010 at 3:49 PM

    Really needs an option to disable it.

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  7. AnonymousOctober 4, 2010 at 6:51 PM

    This is annoying - how do you disable this?

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  8. AnonymousOctober 7, 2010 at 8:08 PM

    I can no longer scroll using the arrow keys without mashing the down arrow a bunch of times. I use a laptop trackpad so I find it more convenient to scroll using the arrow keys. Please give us an option to disable it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. easy loadOctober 9, 2010 at 2:57 AM

    nice

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  10. AnonymousOctober 14, 2010 at 10:07 AM

    This really really sucks!! I'm so glad I found this because I thought I was going crazy!!

    I HATE THIS!!! I CAN NO LONGER SCROLL USING ARROW DOWN OR UP!!
    Please give us an option to disable this.

    ReplyDelete
  11. GoogleOctober 15, 2010 at 6:37 PM

    We are your Gods now. You don't disable it, you adapt to it. We don't give a fuck what you think.

    ReplyDelete
  12. SysAdminOctober 21, 2010 at 11:41 AM

    Turn it off, turn it off now. It wouldn't be horrible if it would smoothly scroll the screen with the selection, if it stays the way it is i will switch to bing.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Alex ChituOctober 21, 2010 at 1:21 PM

    Use Page Up/Page Down or the spacebar to scroll.

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  14. Cosmin PopescuOctober 31, 2010 at 10:43 AM

    I completely agree that there should be an option to disable the shortcuts. Google is acting exactly like Microsoft.

    Anyway, I developed an extension to change this:

    https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/cgaidebaacdbhkddgkjadhbimaoliibk

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  15. AnonymousMay 20, 2011 at 8:12 PM

    holy crap... google, you have no idea, this keyboard thing is really annoying.

    PLS give us an option to disable it!!

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  16. NemJune 12, 2011 at 11:10 PM

    Agreed. I *HATE* this functionality - very annoying. Please allow us to disable this "feature". :(

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousJune 21, 2011 at 12:22 PM

    Google, you have just made Google unusable through keyboard. This is going to be my first serious thought about looking at Bing. Please provide a disable option soon.

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  18. AnonymousJuly 10, 2011 at 12:42 PM

    need an option to disable. OBVIOUSLY.

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  19. SimonAugust 12, 2011 at 6:37 PM

    Absolutely horrible... I want to disable that and the f.... preview bs... GOOGLE: YOU ARE DESTROYING WHAT MADE YOU GREAT! SIMPLICITY!

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  20. AnonymousSeptember 17, 2011 at 6:53 PM

    Seriously this feature is annoying as hell. There should be an option to disable it. I'm considering switching to another search engine. I search very frequently (more than 100 searches a day easy) so this is extra annoying.

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  21. AnonymousSeptember 19, 2011 at 4:18 AM

    Ditto what everyone else is saying. This makes google very annoying to use. I don't want to scroll by the page (using spacebar or page up/down keys). I want to smoothly scroll at my own pace using the arrow keys like I have always done. Don't assume control of my precious keys that already serve a valuable purpose for me. If you want search-result selection arrow keys, then make your own damn keys. I like my arrow keys the way they were.

    Bing sucks too much for me to switch, but this is a nasty annoyance that makes me wish there was another search engine that I liked.

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  22. AnonymousSeptember 29, 2011 at 3:45 PM

    Oh dear god make it stop. Damned ridiculous.

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  23. AnonymousOctober 12, 2011 at 8:03 PM

    disable feature please.

    ReplyDelete
  24. AnonymousNovember 1, 2011 at 2:20 PM

    Worst thing ever in google. All of my browser's keyboard shortcuts are hijacked! I cannot switch between tabs (keys 1 & 2 hijacked), I cannot easily scroll the page (arrows hijacked)! I cannot zoom in/out (+ & - hijacked)!

    This sucks!!!

    And no, digging through search options to disable dynamic search is not an option - after I restart browser (cookies cleared) it's back on again!

    ReplyDelete

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