Question

I use Conkeror on a daily basis except at work where I need Firebug, since I’m a web developer. I really miss having the “follow link” ability in Conkeror but I don’t want to resort to using Vimperator to get it.

Is there any Firefox extension which lets me follow links by hitting a key followed by the link text like in Conkeror?

Answer 1

There are many ways you can already use only the keyboard to browse with Firefox.

Searching pages

The find-as-you-type feature was an epiphany. While Google is great at getting you to the right web page, Firefox’s find-as-you-type feature gets you the rest of the way.

• Find as you type text: /
• Find as you type link: ‘
• Regular old find: Ctrl/Cmd+F

The link search is very useful, especially when used in conjunction with…

Opening pages

Unless you do all of your browsing in one page, these shortcuts are huge when you don’t want to go running for your mouse.

• Open link in new window: Shift+Enter
• Open link in new tab: Ctrl/Cmd+Enter
• Open address/search in new tab: Alt/Option+Enter

Used together with their respective shortcuts (address and search bar shortcuts and the find-as-you-type link shortcut), the page opening shortcuts go a long way toward mouse-less browsing.

Of course, you can also use the Mousless Browsing plugin.

Mouseless Browsing (MLB) enables you to browse the web entirely with the keyboard. The basic principle is to add small boxes with unique ids behind every link and/or form element. You just have to type in the id to trigger the corresponding action i.e. following a link, pressing a button or selecting a textfield…