One Keyboard Shortcut That Should Be Universal

I’m a big fan of keyboard shortcuts. Anyone who’s worked with me long enough has probably had me interrupt them at least once to share a keyboard shortcut or two.

While many shortcuts are tailored for power users, there’s one in particular that I wish was universal:

“/” for focusing on the primary search box.

YouTube, GitHub, HEY and many other sites use the “/” key to jump straight to the main search box. Outside of CTRL+C and CTRL+V, this is my most-used shortcut. I know this because ZSA’s Keymapp software tracks your most-used keys, and “/” ranks among my top ones.

The sites I really wish would adopt this feature? Amazon and Walmart. I use both weekly and would love to navigate them without reaching for my mouse. I currently rely on a Chrome extension called “Key Jump” to get around many sites using only my keyboard, but the main search box remains a sticking point. If they simply implemented this shortcut, I could use most daily features hands-free.

Could we start a movement to pressure these companies into adopting “/”? Probably not..so I created a Chrome extension called SlashSearch that enables this feature on many websites.