Keyboard Shortcuts to Navigate Through Google Search Results

A post on the Official Google Blog reminded us of a recently launched search experiment from Google called Accessible View. With this opt-in experimental version of Google.com, you can navigate through your search results using keyboard shortcuts. For those of you who are already heavy users of Google Reader, the inbox for the RSS-obsessed, these shortcuts will be very familiar to you. Although designed for people with disabilities, we gave the keyboard shortcuts a whirl to see if it made sense to use them on a regular basis.

In the Google Accessible View search experiment, you can navigate through the search results using the following shortcuts (see below).

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Current keyboard shortcuts include:

j or DOWN  –  Selects the next item.
k or UP       –  Selects the previous item.
l or RIGHT   –  Moves to the next category (results, sponsored links, refinements).
h or LEFT    –  Moves to the previous category (results, sponsored links, refinements).
<Enter>       –  Opens the selected result.
/                 –  Puts the cursor in the search box.
n                 –  Moves to the next result, and fetches more results if necessary.
p                 –  Moves to the previous result, reloading earlier results if necessary.
=                 –  Magnifies current item
–                 –  Shrinks current item
A                –  Switches to Accessible Search Results
W               –  Switches to regular Web Search Results

The “A” switches you Accessible Search Results, which identifies and prioritizes search results that are more easily usable by blind and visually impaired users. The “W” switches you back to regular results.

(source)