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Ask HN: What key combination do you prefer for search on a website?

6 points by holistio ↗ HN
I'm implementing a platform mostly targeted towards developers. The search bar is a central part of it, and I, just like lots of us prefer to use the keyboard as much as possible over pointing devices.

My instinct says I should go with Cmd+K, as it's standard in so many apps nowadays and doesn't hijack the default Cmd+F. I've also seen Cmd+/ and other things being used elsewhere.

Do you have a preference or do you feel like there's a de facto standard emerging here?

11 comments

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thedday
Control-f for find is a classic. I do like using slash (/) for finding as well. If you're recognizing the keys yourself, do away with control and just have at it with f or slash for find, t and b for top and bottom and left and right arrow keys for next and previous pages, if such are applicable.
redanddead
yeah but I really hate that it hijacks Chrome's ctrl+f
randomluck040
What does Chrome do with ctrl+f and why? It’s been widely accepted that it’s used for search so why would you steer away from that?
Doxin
Chrome does find-in-page with ctrl-f. I deeply loathe when websites hijack that for their own janky-ass search function that barely works.
phillipseamore
It's wise to use simple characters and not symbols like the forwards slash as it might not be the a dedicated key in some languages on keyboards. You might also consider allowing remapping keyboard shortcuts.
justsomehnguy
Ah, a typical wrong question.

The right one would be:

Do you even need some key combo to go to the site search box?

How many times a day do you really do that?

If you really-really use this, which key combo do you use or would prefere to use?"

(yes, I'm tired of absolutely useless search on the most of the websites which sometimes doesn't implement even a full-text search on the topic contents AND ALSO is stealing my keys and focus)

iamevn
I'd generally prefer the search bar be one of the first things available to tab over to. Ctrl+f and slash are used by my browser to search the page and I would rather the page not take over those keys.
matt_heimer
What websites do this beside google.com? I haven't seen it often but maybe I'm just not trying it frequently.

Edit:

  * Github supports /
  * Google supports /
  * AWS Console supports Alt+S
MH15
Cmd/Ctrl+K is the standard recently, I'd go with that. Please don't hijack browser-native find behavior.
logicalmonster
1) You might be overthinking this question by worrying too hard about keyboard shortcuts at this stage. Until you have a site worth a damn, even technically knowledgeable developers aren't going to be worrying about looking for another set of keyboard shortcuts to learn: they'll be looking for a search button to click same as 99% of users out there. (I pulled that statistic out of my butt, but I'm 89% sure that I'm 96% correct.)

2) I feel like overriding default operating systems patterns is almost always the wrong move for any question. I'd get a bit ticked if CMD+F worked differently than I expect for finding an item on a page.

puffoflogic
I prefer that websites don't implement any kind of key bindings at all. All they accomplish is interfering with my extensions (Vimium, etc.). My extensions guarantee a consistent set of bindings across sites. I'm not going to memorize your site's key bindings. I have never intentionally used any site's key bindings but I use my extensions daily.