Computer users sometimes run into situations where they won’t or can’t use a computer mouse. Think of a netbook or notebook for instance. Those computer without a computer mouse most of the time and the touchpad replacement or substitute sometimes does not really cut it. Keyboard Navigation is a Google Chrome extension that aids the user in navigating the Internet in the Google browser without a computer mouse.
The concept is simple. The extension displays a number next to each link on the active web page which, when pressed, will load the url of the link in the browser. This can mean digits in the hundreds on some websites like Wikipedia who use automatic internal link placements.
The corresponding numbers can be pressed on the numeric pad or standard keyboard. Google Chrome will start loading the website immediately after pressing one of the links. The links are displayed and hidden with the ALT G keyboard shortcut. The extension can be configured to open tabs in a new foreground or background tab (by pressing g or b).
It does however seem to have slight problems with JavaScript links which can be observed on a Google Search page for instance. This is more of a display problem than a usability problem though. Internet Chrome users who want to install Keyboard Navigation need a Chrome 4 developer version to do so. The extension can be downloaded from the Chrome Extensions website.
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Great tips,
Keyboard shortcuts are handy especially on netbooks/notebooks when mouse isn’t available.