Technology
Google adds ‘keyboard shortcut’ to quickly edit search queries
Every day millions of people search for something on Google but they don’t know about the hidden tricks and tools that can be used to get the best out of it.
Worldwide, an average of 63,000 searches per second, 2.8 million every minute, 228 million every hour, more than 5.6 billion times per day and 2,000 billion times a year are searched on Google. However, these average figures are likely to go up or down, with 16 to 20 per cent of unique searches for which Google is always working to improve its search engine.
According to a report by a foreign news agency, Google has added a new shortcut to its search engine which helps to improve search results immediately.
A small tweak to Google.com on desktops now lets you quickly “jump to the search box” with a convenient keyboard shortcut. It’s particularly useful for refining your original query.
Pressing “/” on a results page will open the search field and allow you to start typing. The cursor appears at the end of your existing/current query as suggestions load underneath for quick selection with your arrow keys.
Given how it works, the intended use case of this keyboard shortcut seems to be refining your original term. It does not work on the homepage where the search field is immediately active on page load.
“Press / to jump to the search box”
Google is informing users about this keyboard shortcut through a box in the bottom-left corner of the search results page that appears when any key is tapped.
As of today, this shortcut is widely rolled out. It joins how you can hit “tab” to access accessibility features and navigate the page with just a keyboard.