Alternative Focus on input search / Pressing any character keystroke to append to search query

[robinrosenstock]

There should be a shortcut to jump to the input search and immediately add some words to the search.
Like it was with google instant, just typing for adding words to the input search. But maybe this is not working with the api?

[infokiller]

Would something like A (shift+a) work for you here?
(A was chosen because it's similar to the same command in vim).

[robinrosenstock]

I'm not a fan of vim. Best Solution is to let the users change the shortcuts.
But do as you wish, you are the maintainer.

[infokiller]

Yes, adding customization in the options should be easy, I meant that A will be the default.
Just to make sure I understand, you want to be able to type this shortcut and then the search box will get focus and the cursor will be at the end of the current text?

[robinrosenstock]

yes

[rik-smeets]

@infokiller Feel free to contact me if you're low on time to do this. I can also make the changes if requested (I can't guarantee anything though; it's in my spare time as well of course). Since I really appreciate you making this extension to begin with, I do like to help out further extending or improving it!

[infokiller]

Thanks @rik-smeets !

I'm a bit low on time right now, but I think I'll have time to do a batch of improvements (addressing other issues too) in a few (4-5) weeks.

@geniusupgrader
Let's wait for more feedback (keep these issues coming!) and I'll try to address most/all of them in the next batch of improvements.

[Dawa12]

@infokiller I too would love to see this feature added! Love the extension!

[tedzhu]

Hi, just want to revive this topic with my two cents. It seems there're two use cases:

1. focus search, select whole thing, to do a new search
2. focus search, move cursor to end, to add more texts

In my own experience I feel 2. is more common. Since making search, refining query is kind of like a session, ending with going into a site.
I'd suggest changing the behavior from 1. to 2. Or, similar to the discussion above, make them two commands with configurable hotkey (default '/' for 1., 'escape' for 2., maybe?)

Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys think. I don't mind working on a PR.

[infokiller]

I personally rarely run into use case 2. For use case 1, I instinctively open a new tab in chrome and start a search.
So my experience and workflow is probably not that relevant for this feature.

[tedzhu]

(+1 for new tab for new search)

Understandable that everyone has different workflow. In that sense I think separating into 2 commands will provide the flexibility.

[robinrosenstock]

After using google-search-navigator since August last year, with the current behaviour, I can conclude that I really often do this:

1. search something, then realizing I want to add something to the search string
2. hit esc, to focus search field
3. go the the right
4. press space
5. type to add another word
6. hit enter

Maybe better workflow:

1. search something, then realizing I want to add something to the search string
2. press some special button
3. type to add another word
4. hit enter

Or, for me personally, I would like some option to enable the old google instant search. so type something to add a word, like this:

1. search something, then realizing I want to add something to the search string
2. just type to add another word
3. hit enter

So this issue is still relevant for me.

[beracira]

@geniusupgrader I do miss the old google instant search, but the thing is that will be conflicting other shortcuts. One option will be to disable other functionalities so that alphanumeric characters are freed up.

[ryankhart]

What I'd really want to have the option for is to set / to bring focus to the search bar but not select all the text and append instead. If I wanted to replace all the search text with a new one, I'd just open up a new tab and search there.

Google Search Keyboard Shortcuts on Chrome works as described above, but I recently switched from Chrome to Firefox. That extension doesn't exist on Firefox at this time.

[mancze]

@ryankhart If you activate the "Focus search box" shortcut twice the search box will be focused with cursor at the end of the text. Would it work for you as a workaround?

[ryankhart]

@ryankhart If you activate the "Focus search box" shortcut twice the search box will be focused with cursor at the end of the text. Would it work for you as a workaround?

@mancze Sweet! That's much easier than I thought. I was already trying to build from my own personal fork because I deleted the line of code for selecting. Thanks for showing me that trick.

[tedzhu]

@ryankhart If you activate the "Focus search box" shortcut twice the search box will be focused with cursor at the end of the text. Would it work for you as a workaround?

@ryankhart what do you mean activate it twice? First time it focus the search box, second time the character will be typed in, right?