Web browsing is best done on a computer (or laptop). The nifty keyboard shortcuts that work universally on all the browsers on a computer can’t be matched by any gesture controlled shortcuts, or any similar thing on a tablet or a smartphone. Listed below are the keyboard shortcuts that make me claim everything above.
Note: I have tested the below shortcuts on Google Chrome v33, Opera v18, Firefox v16 (outdated, but I rarely use it) and Internet Explorer v11. (Almost all of) These shortcuts are universal and should work fine on other web browsers and different versions of the browsers I mentioned.
- Control + Left Click on a link to open it in new tab (Or pressing middle mouse button (or left and right touchpad buttons simultaneously, if configured correctly) on a link).
- Control + 1 or 2 or 3 …..9 to jump to the first or second or third... ninth tab, Control + 0 to switch to the last tab. (Doesn’t work on Opera 18, works on Chrome, Firefox, IE 11)
- Control + W to close tab.
- Control + Tab or Control + Shift + Tab to switch tabs clockwise or anti-clockwise (respectively).
- Control + T to open a new tab.
- Control + Shift + T to open the last closed tab (twice to open the last two tabs and so on…)
- Control + J to open Downloads Page.
- Control + H to jump to the History page.
- Control + O to open a document, Control + S to save the current page.
- Alt + Left Arrow to go back one page (like backspace), Alt + Right arrow to go forward one page. (Works even in File Explorer)
- Control + L to jump to the address bar (omnibox/url bar, whatever you call it), start typing an address and visit it right away!
- Control + U to view the page source of any web page.
- Control + Shift + N for private (or incognito) browsing on Chrome and Opera, Control + Shift + P for the same on Firefox. This feature doesn’t exist on Internet Explorer.
- And obviously, Control + F to find something in a page.
