Friday, March 12, 2010

SOLVED: google experimental search -- keyboard shortcuts

google has an experimental search keyboard shortcuts experiment. i've been using this as my primary search since i've found it a few years ago, and i love it. lets you navigate search results with j/k/o, instead of having to click on everything. stopped working today ...

The experiment you're trying to access is no longer available. Go to experiments overview

the keyboard shortcuts experiment is still listed, so hoping against hope that it's just a bug and that it will get fixed quickly. has anybody heard anything ???

here's an example of how to search for "stuff"

http://www.google.com/search?q=stuff&esrch=BetaShortcuts


Update (2010 March 17) -- SOLVED
this is working again (since the 12th i think)

alkaline33 from the mailing list suggested an alternative user script. might be useful if google does eventually disable the experiment: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/43131



Update (2011 November 30) -- BROKEN AGAIN

i get the "no longer available" message and the shortcuts don't work. there's a bunch of noise on the mailing list to the same effect. and google announced that they were dropping a bunch of experiments and lab projects. so i'm guessing that this really is the end of the road, but holding out hope. i haven't tried the userscript, 

11 comments:

Amir said...

I just noticed the message indicating the experiment was no longer available. This is very upsetting, as I relied heavily on the feature.

Proto said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Same here. Would love to have it back. Search doesn't feel the same without it. Instead of removing it, they should actually add n/p to move to the next/previous page.

Anonymous said...

It is back! Good news.

Anonymous said...

it's back ... glad to see so much interest

AG said...

and as of today, May 5th 2010, the keyboard shortcuts experimental search gives me the same "no longer available" message.

Bill said...

Back again. I see it.

Proto said...

It is gone, again! Perhaps due to the Google in multi-color that they have rolled out today. Saad!

AG said...

Aaaaand, it's appears to be back, again.

Strange how the feature goes away for little stretches. I wouldn't be surprised if it breaks when Google makes changes to their search results page and then someone has to come in and tweak things to get keyboard shortcuts to work again.

Anyhow, looks like we're okay again, for now.

Proto said...

And it is gone once again! This time I wanted to try something else and so clicked "Leave this experiment". When I visit the Google Experimental search page now, Keyboard shortcuts is no longer listed. Sad! I hope someone inside Google notices and puts it back on.

KAMiKZ said...

How can I pay you some $$? I am in tears to find this working again because of you