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Google Restores Backspace Functionality To Chrome With an Add-on (betanews.com)

Posted by msmash on from the faith-restored dept.

In May, Google upset many users when it announced it was going to stop the backspace button from also functioning as the back button. If you're among the ones who felt let down by company's decision, there is something you can do about it now. Alan Buckingham, writing for BetaNews: If you don't want to go to the effort of moving your mouse pointer to the back arrow at the left of the address bar to go back to the previous site, you can now install the new Go Back With Backspace add-on. The official description reads, "Go back with the backspace button! This extension re-enables the backspace key as a back navigation button -- except if you're writing text". The reason given for all of this, according to Google, is "many people lost their progress while working online by accidentally pressing backspace and leaving a page -- so we removed the feature from Chrome, and created this extension for those who prefer the old behavior".

21 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. Why isn't this configurable? by Pseudonymous+Powers · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Shouldn't this be configurable?

    Is this already configurable?

    1. Re: Why isn't this configurable? by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 2

      Because the state of the form might be littered with Ajax operations such that simply refilling in the form won't accurately reflect the state of the page before it unloaded.

      Right, he's saying that the state should be preserved. And it should be. ctrl-shift-t to re-open a tab can already do this - forward should as well.

      --
      My God, it's Full of Source!
      OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
    2. Re: Why isn't this configurable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Are you freaking kidding me?

      My computer and operating system can freeze their entire state into memory (suspend) or disk (hibernate) and resume operating almost as if nothing had happened. Only a few things suddenly stop working (wifi), but they are quickly recovered.

      If I am using virtual machines, I can freeze an entire running OS (including running applications, open sockets etc), ship it into another computer and then resume running it IN COMPLETELY DIFFERENT HARDWARE with minimal breakage.

      And you're telling me that the snowflakes that develop browsers can't figure out how to freeze the current state of the page (that 99% of the times will just be static HTML) and then restore it at a later time?

    3. Re: Why isn't this configurable? by tlhIngan · · Score: 3, Informative

      I just wrote a comment to you and closed the window. Ctrl-shift-t restored the window, but did not restore the comment. It can be argued that Chrome ought to store the exact state of the window including all javascript junk, but it currently does not.

      And that's the root of the problem. Chrome does not save the state of the form.

      IE and Firefox preserve the state of forms - IE just basic form data, but Firefox seems to preserve the entire state, and Chrome... does neither.

      In fact, I think Firefox does this extremely well - preserving the state has gotten better and better lately. This might be Firefox's one big redeeming quality of late.

    4. Re: Why isn't this configurable? by epyT-R · · Score: 2

      Part of the problem is we treat a document browser as an application platform.

    5. Re: Why isn't this configurable? by Qzukk · · Score: 2

      Chrome DOES save the state of plain HTML forms when closing/reopening the window, but since the javascript/DOM state isn't saved, the comment box itself no longer exists when the page is reopened.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
    6. Re: Why isn't this configurable? by amicusNYCL · · Score: 2

      Part of the problem is that some people assume the internet is a collection of static documents.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    7. Re:Why isn't this configurable? by skids · · Score: 2

      "There's an app for this basic functionality that should just be an option" is one of the reasons I usually do not use chrome.

      Seriously, it's probably like 40 lines of code to have a config option, check it, and if set map a key to an already defined action (unless your codebase is collapsing under its own weight.) This is not worth the cruft of another app in the ecosystem.

      --
      Someone had to do it.
  2. But Backspace as Browser-Back really sucks. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I actually really hate that backspace ever did what it did. Realy sucks when you are filling out a form and try and delete some text only to have accidentally left the box and now have your whole form thrown away.

    1. Re:But Backspace as Browser-Back really sucks. by gweilo8888 · · Score: 2

      Exactly. As someone who has to work in the browser all day, every day, this "feature" lost me SO much work it's just not funny.

      It's also not as if this was the only option other than your mouse, either. Alt-Left Arrow does the *exact* same thing, but not with a single key so it's far harder to bump by mistake. You're welcome.

    2. Re:But Backspace as Browser-Back really sucks. by amicusNYCL · · Score: 2

      Haven't you cave dwellers heard of mouse gestures? New tab, close tab, back, forward, you can do any of those in a fraction of a second without taking your hand off the thing you use to browse the internet anyway (not that thing, the other thing).

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    3. Re:But Backspace as Browser-Back really sucks. by epyT-R · · Score: 2

      Since this isn't merely about browsing but active use of a browser as an application platform, it makes sense to only use the mouse when necessary.

    4. Re:But Backspace as Browser-Back really sucks. by johnw · · Score: 2

      Agreed - it was a really stupid mis-feature in early browsers which has unfortunately been carried on and some people have become used to it and don't want to lose it. Although "Backspace" and "Go back" both contain the four-letter sequence "back", they actually do completely different things and the key should never have been overloaded to do something so totally different.

      It probably seemed like a good idea at the time to the person who thought of it, and unfortunately he or she implemented it without really thinking it through. Much pain has thus been inflicted.

      It's a bit like the twit at Microsoft who decided to change the directory separator understood by COMMAND.COM from "/" to "\" because he wanted to use "/" for something else. (N.B. it was only ever the command shell which required this. The underlying OS has always understood "/" as a directory separator.) It seemed like a good idea at the time, but it similarly wasn't thought through and has caused endless pain since.

  3. enable it? funny... I did the opposite by green1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I actually had an extension installed to DISABLE it... it was always an absolutely HORRIBLE idea. There's already the alt-left arrow combination which was far less likely to be activated accidentally while being just as easy to use on purpose.

  4. Caps-Lock by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...many people lost their progress while working online by accidentally pressing backspace and leaving a page...

    wHY DOESN'T GOOGLE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE FRIGGIN' caps-lock KEY?

    1. Re:Caps-Lock by Psicopatico · · Score: 2

      ...yet.

      --
      Mastering the English language is fucking easy: all you have to do is to put an f* word in every fucking sentence.
  5. ALT+LEFT by gameboyhippo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why not just press ALT+LEFT?

    1. Re:ALT+LEFT by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because 'backspace to go back' is default behavior in a lot of programs, not just web browsers. Try it in File Explorer, for example.

      Just like F1 being a nearly universal shortcut for 'help', F2 for 'rename', F3 or CTRL+F for 'search', and so on. I shouldn't have to relearn shortcuts for common behaviors in every program I want to use.

      I thought that Alt+Left and Alt+Right *are* the standard shortcuts for going backward and forward in program histories. It's worked that way in every web browser I can remember using back to the 1990s, and it works that way in Windows Explorer. The backspace key doesn't even have an obvious corresponding "forward" key.

      I wasn't aware that backspace was used to go back in history in any program. I always expect it to erase one character, or do nothing.

  6. Good riddance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't count the amount of times I've lost work because of the backspace button acting like a back button. I type around 80WPM, but I make use of the backspace key extensively; it's like it's hardwired in my brain. This should be the default behavior, people who want it to act like the back button should have to configure it themselves.

  7. Understandable problem by thegarbz · · Score: 2

    Really I get it. Even though it is duplicating the functionality of alt+left which incidentally has an opposite unlike backspace, I get it. Why? My keyboard says "BACK" on that button. It doesn't get more intuitive than that.

    Yes it was a horrible design decision to re-use a key and cause many problems for typing in a website, but I get it.

    1. Re:Understandable problem by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      I didn't say my keyboard has a "backspace" key. I said it says "BACK". In all caps.