Google has just dropped a new keyboard shortcut that you can use to refine your search queries, and while it won’t save you a week, it’s easier to use than scrolling back to the search bar , click it and edit your query to launch a new search.
The shortcut is simple and easy to remember: when you’re on the results page for any Google search, all you have to do is “/” the key on the keyboard – a direct bar, if you confuse it the other bar from the keyboard – and the cursor will jump back into the search box and position itself right at the end of the query. Then you can add or subtract words, add operators, or do it quickly CTRL + A and Delete to start again.
This trick does not work when you initially load google.com, because you don’t have to; as soon as you load the page, your cursor is ready in the search box, ready to enter anything you want. But when you do multiple searches to find something, it’s a faster way to refine your search until you find what you came up with.
And while we’re at it, let’s give you a few more shortcuts to speed up your search. Because you can use your browser’s address bar to launch all your Google queries instead of visiting the Google website, simply shuffle CTRL + E or CTRL + K whenever you want to search the web. If you are not on a website that has already taken a keyboard shortcut for a different purpose (such as, say, adding a hyperlink to the text of a blog post), then your cursor will immediately jump to a bar of empty addresses so you can start searching.
I’ve tested this in Chrome, Edge Chromium and Firefox and it works perfectly. However, if you are a Safari fan, you will need to mix Command + L. This is just the way it is on macOS. If you puree CTRL + L (or ALT + D) In Chrome, Edge Chromium, or Firefox, you’ll go to the address bar and highlight everything there – a slightly different setup than removing all to perform a new search.
G / O Media may receive a commission