Back in the days of olde (i.e. late 90s) web browsers were distinctively different in the way they worked as far as user commands were concerned. Today all of them act more or less identical to each other. I personally feel this is good because when going from one browser to the next there’s not too much of a learning curve, if any at all.

My favorite shortcuts are the ones that require the absolute least amount of effort to do, such as single-key functions or double-clicking a mouse in a certain spot.

I’ll be going over a few (but not all) of these shortcuts in the "big three" web browsers: Internet Explorer 7 (IE7), Firefox 2 (FF2) and Opera 9.26 (OP9).

Keystroke: CTRL+T
Function: Open new tab
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke: CTRL+W
Function: Close currently selected tab
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke for only one tab open: CTRL+W
Function: Closes browser
Works in: IE7 FF2

Keystroke: F5
Function: Refresh/Reload web page
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke: F6
Function: Go to address (URL) bar
Works in: IE7 FF2

Keystroke: / (forward slash)
Function: Quick-find text in current web page
Works in: FF2 OP9

Keystroke: Home
Function: Go to top of current web page
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke: End
Function: Go to bottom of current web page
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Keystroke: CTRL+(number of tab)
Function: Go to specific tab by order of load (CTRL+1, CTRL+2, etc.)
Works in: IE7 FF2

Mouse: Double-click in blank area of tab bar
Function: Opens new blank tab
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

Mouse+Keyboard: ALT+Scroll
Function: Scroll by line
Works in: FF2

Mouse+Keyboard: SHIFT+Scroll (up or down)
Function: Go back/forward thru web page history
Works in: IE7 FF2 OP9

As you can see, most functions are more or less identical across all browsers. The two that are almost identical to each other are IE and FF. There’s very little FF can do that IE can’t.

Opera, while a great browser, seems to be the only one that falls behind in the shortcut department. F6 has been "go to address" bar pretty much ever since web browsers were invented, yet Opera doesn’t do it. Yes, I know you can do a CTRL+L for the same function but it shouldn’t take two keys when you can do it in just one. A nitpick? Yes, obviously. But hey, I notice these things, what can I say..

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