Kinook Software Blog

For the last couple of years, Google had an experimental search feature called Keyboard Shortcuts available. I found it indispensible for navigating search results via the keyboard.

Well, today that feature is gone (results can no longer be navigated via the keyboard and the message “The experiment you’re trying to access is no longer available” is displayed when attempting to use this feature).

Another related experiment is Accessible View, which does provide some keyboard navigation, but it plays annoying sounds and has several other deficiencies. And this one may have been dropped too (it worked a couple of times today, but usually gives the same message as Keyboard Shortcuts).

I was really hoping they would incorporate Keyboard Shortcuts into the default search results, but apparently there wasn’t enough interest in it. Bummer. I’ll have to find a suitable replacement, but no luck so far.