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What is the keyboard shortcut to access the first result in a Google search page?

Any "hacks" would be fine, as long as it does not require the mouse.

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  • for a macOS only hack, see this solution where you can use built in accessibility features
    – Honey
    Dec 24, 2020 at 16:41

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
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Note: As of 2018 the answer is out of date. The triangle arrow next to the search result no longer appears.

Assuming you mean the first search result, this is already built in to Google!

Notice there is already a little ▶ arrow will next to the first search result. Turns out pressing enter after your search will navigate to that first search result automatically – note that you may need to press ↓ first to set the focus to it.

If you don't want the first search result, press ↓ again to move the arrow ▶ to the next result, etc, until you get the one you want.

Then press enter to navigate to the search result with the ▶ arrow.

Additionally:

  • pressing ctrl+enter opens the search result in a new tab.

  • pressing shift+enter opens the search result in a new browser window.

  • pressing → shows a screenshot for the given search result.

enter image description here

This is a fairly new change and was rolled out with Google Instant Search in September 2010.

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  • 2
    Pushing tab no longer seems to work (unless you push it 6 or so times), the best solution is to push down instead of tab to focus on the first link.
    – Aequitas
    May 21, 2015 at 23:57
  • 3
    Not working anymore
    – Jithin Pavithran
    Oct 25, 2017 at 9:56
  • 3
    tab of down arrow do not work anymore
    – MaxiWheat
    Jan 24, 2018 at 14:55
  • Any update on what does work in 2018? Maybe an addon?
    – nclsvh
    Nov 7, 2018 at 10:28
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    See the answer by @ap2051 below: it works in 2019.
    – Jim Pivarski
    Oct 25, 2019 at 12:56
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You can open the first link populated by Google search by pressing: tab enter enter

After pressing the tab key, a dialog box appears saying "Skip to main content" enter image description here

Additionally, after pressing tab enter :

  • ctrl+enter opens the search result in a new tab.

  • shift+enter opens the search result in a new browser window.

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  • 5
    Note to everyone: this is the method that works now (2019).
    – Jim Pivarski
    Oct 25, 2019 at 12:55
  • Now with "featured snippets", you might have to press Tab a few more times after pressing Tab, Enter, Enter to get to the actual link.
    – wjandrea
    Mar 17, 2022 at 21:47
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When typing with suggest, down arrow to select a query and right arrow to select I'm feeling lucky option.

Shortcuts for when you're typing in the search box:

  • enter will search for exactly what you typed in the search box.

  • tab will update the query you’ve typed to match the first prediction.

  • ↓ will highlight the next predicted query and show new results.

  • ↓ then enter will search for the highlighted prediction and points out focuses on the first result on the page.

  • ↓ then → will take you to the webpage of your first result just like the "I’m Feeling Lucky" link.

http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=191139

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  • That's basically not a shortcut. Too many steps.
    – Avatar
    Apr 16, 2021 at 3:59
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Hello from the year 2021. Google does not provide shortcuts (yet/anymore) to navigate through the search results.

However, there is a handy browser extension to solve the problem: Web Search Navigator

Web Search Navigator demo video

Install links:

After installation you just press ↓ Down and navigate through the results.

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+50

Maybe something like Pentadactyl/Vimperator (Firefox) or Vimium (Chrome) plugins is something for you?

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3

I quite like http://keyboardr.com/. It's a keyboard(!) based search tool based on Google's search and everything is accessible by keyboard.

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  • How do they do this and what about captchas? Are they using illegal screenscraping?
    – Pacerier
    May 24, 2015 at 20:46
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This solution works fine on a mac. It's much easier to do if you have a keyboard with numpad.

Enable Alternate Control Methods for your Mac

System preferences >> Accessibility >> Alternate Control Methods. You can configure it to be enabled/disabled with 5 option taps. Alternatively you can also control the cursor with head movements or perform clicks with facial expressions.

enter image description here

You can move around with just the touch pad and then to select a link, just click. 5. For more on this see here and here

Generally speaking The Mac OS has a lot pro keyboard features hidden inside its Accessibility. Some apps have their own accessibility features too.

Just make sure you adjust the cursor speed, etc. Otherwise it's going to be slow.

Use down arrow key

The previous step can work all by itself, but it's ultimately slow. To accommodate for that, just scroll down using the arrow key.

The good thing is that if you're a little above the link or little below the link, still the cursor will consider that you're clicking on the link i.e. as long as you see the cursor changed to hand button then you should be able click.

And sometimes you might not be on the appropriate layer to scroll, so just try using tab or cmmd+tab to move around

I suppose Windows has similar accessibility features too, but unfortunately I'm just not much of a Windows user

Alternate solution

Just hit tab and upon arriving the correct link, just hit Enter

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