Chrome Removes Backspace As Back Button Feature

Have you ever been filling out a form online, only to mess something up, requiring you to hit the Backspace key? If you're lucky, it simply deleted the text that you wanted it to. However, if you were unlucky, it may have just taken you back to the previous page. And if you were extra unlucky, you just lost all of the data you'd worked so hard to enter. Soon that will be an issue of the past, however.

The reason that this issue happens at all is because of a keyboard shortcut that has existed for a very long time. The backspace key has long been used to easily go back to your previous page. It's a shortcut that I've used for as long as I've known about it. However, once in a great while, I'll want to actually delete some text, and because my cursor was in the wrong place, I've lost a fair bit of text that I'd been typing out.

Google is aware that people get very frustrated when they lose data, thanks to the backspace key being pressed. That's why they're removing the feature from an upcoming build of their Chrome browser. According to Google "Years of user complaints have been enough that we think it's the right choice to change this given the degree of pain users feel by losing their data and because every platform has another keyboard combination that navigates back."

Personally, I've used the backspace for navigation less and less over the years, because the thumb buttons on my mouse do the job for me. I'm honestly happy to know that I'll never again lose all of the important work that I've put into my rant on the feedback form of my local pizza place, because they've messed up my simple order, yet again.

Source: Chromium Code Reviews