Google search tab shortcut not working

Question

I often use the tab key to quickly browse Google search results, but recently it has stopped working.

usually clicking a tab after a search puts a tiny arrow next to the results. that way, you can easily use the keyboard arrows to navigate to the one you need.

Answer 1

Recently, this thing has gone crazy. Clearing cookies as some offers were not an option since I always logged into my Gmail account. Indeed, I could switch to incognito mode to have hotkeys at my fingertips, but, for God's sake, who would be satisfied with such a UX?

So, I spent half an hour and finally discovered what Lou Kosak said on Google product forums:

Just found a fix (?). Turns off tab + arrow keys + enter Navigation of the search results only works if Google Instant is enabled (see https://superuser.com/a/554324 ).

To summarize the superuser response:

• go to google.com when you log in
• Click "Settings" in the lower right.
• click "Search Settings"
• update the "Google Instant Prediction" option to "Only when my computer is fast enough" or "Always show instant results."

Hope this helps!

Update 2017-07-31 . Google canceled instant search. See: http://searchengineland.com/google-dropped-google-instant-search-279674 . This means that this solution no longer works.

Answer 2

Update: since Google shook the instant search, this will not work out of the box, but this answer shows a way to fix it.

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Since the problem persisted even on other computers (in the same google profile), I found a permanent solution:

Google search settings (from any google search page, the gear icon is at the top right) → Google’s instant forecasts → enable (only when my computer is fast enough).

obviously, the two functions are connected. I found an article about her somewhere else, but I could not find her to quote from here. if someone does, add to the comment.

Answer 3

I occasionally come across this, and clearing the browsing data ( Settings -> More Tools -> Clear browsing data ) seems to fix this for me. It seems I should clear the cookies in order to make it work again.