Keyboard Shortcuts on Google Experiments
With a layout oddly reminescant of old roguelike games, google’s experiment with keyboard shortcuts should save ‘homerow’ style typists a large amount of time going through search results.
Here’s the scenario I envision for this: You’ve gone to the google hompage to start a search, the cursor automatically focuses onto the search query box when the page loads, so you can start typing your search keywords right away. After hitting enter to start the search, do your fingers drift back to the ‘home row?’ Those ASDF and JKL; keys that mavis beacon and so many other typing tutor programs (and perhaps keyboarding teachers) drilled into your head? I know mine do, its second nature.
With your fingers there, as your eyes scan down the page for the most relevant site or article in the search results, your index finger on the ‘J’ key will select the next result in the list. It will also scroll the page down to the end if you keep going. The ‘K’ will go back a result, also scrolling the page. The ‘Enter’ or ‘O’ keys will go to the URL of the currently selected item.
I’ve been able to very quickly locate what I want in the results with this, and without taking my hand off the keyboard and reaching for the mouse. It may not seem like a huge energy saver if you’re a hunt-and-peck typer or if you prefer to use the mouse to select things, but it is for me. I do many google searches in a day, and as a programmer I am a quite accomplished typist, if I must say so myself.
Keywords, ENTER, J->J->J, ENTER and I’ve found what I want. I had no idea that this feature was ‘missing’ until I found it. A big congrats to the developers at our favorite search engine for thinking of these small things that make life easier. Way to go!
Head on over to Google’s Experimental Search to try it for yourself.