Google search "go to results" keyboard shortcut

Question

In Chrome if I make a Google search and have a list of results, is there a keyboard shortcut to go to the links quickly and switch between the list of results? E.g. in Opera one can achieve it by pressing Tab and using the Up/Down arrows.

Answer 1

Google have removed this feature, so you can't just turn it out like you used to be able to. The way you used to be able to do this was through:

Google Search > Settings > Search Settings > Google Instant Prediction > On

I was so sad to see this feature go that I wrote a hack to re-engineer it last night. So far it only works with Google Chrome, but can be adapted to work with all the others:

1. Install Chrome extension ShortKeys.
2. Click on the ShortKeys menu and select "Options"
3. Click on "Add" and fill in the following fields:

Keyboard Shortcut: tab

Behavior: Run JavaScript

Label as: Result Picker

4. Paste the following JavaScript into the JavaScript code to run:

   document.selectedResultId=0
   function selectResult(newId){
       els = document.querySelectorAll("div.r h3")
       if(newId < 0 || newId >= els.length)
           return  //Could modify for page nav...?
       rp = document.getElementById("result-pointer")
       if(rp != null){
           rp.remove()
       }
       document.selectedResultId=newId
       el = els[newId]
       lnk = el.firstElementChild
       el.innerHTML = "<div id=\"result-pointer\" style=\"position:absolute;left:-15px;\">&gt;</div>" + el.innerHTML
       lnk.focus()
   }
   document.onkeyup=function(event){
       if(event.keyCode==38)
           selectResult(document.selectedResultId-1)
       if(event.keyCode==40)
           selectResult(document.selectedResultId+1)
       if(event.keyCode==13){
         var el = document.querySelectorAll("div.r h3")[document.selectedResultId]
         var lnk = el.parentElement
         var url = lnk.href
         if(event.ctrlKey){
           var win = window.open(url,"_blank")
           win.blur()
           window.open().close()
         }
         else{
           document.location = url
         }
       }
   }
   selectResult(0)
   

5. Configure the Activation Settings:

Active while in form fields (Checked)

Websites (Only specific sites)

URLS (one per line): *.google.*

This is what the Options page should look like

6. Click Save and then close your browser.

Instructions:

• When you restart you should see a little blue ">" appear by search results when you hit tab.

• The up/down arrow keys make it cycle through the results.

• Hitting "Enter" will navigate to the highlighted result.

• Hitting "Ctrl+Enter" to open the result in a new tab. (note: on a Mac this is the actual control key, not command)

Happy Searching!

Answer 2

Yes you press TAB button once to get to the first result. And then you can select with the down/up buttons.

Answer 3

Just use your arrow keys ←↕→ and then press Enter when you are at the desired result.