Google Chrome experiment with ending backspace back button

For many Internet users, using the keyboard backspace button to navigate to the previous page on your Internet browser is something you may be very familiar with.

But the days of this decades-old, widely accepted function may be numbered. At least if Google have anything to say about it.

Google have announced that they are experimenting with a version of their popular Chrome browser that does not have this function enabled. In fact it is already live in their Canary Chrome browser (Chrome’s newest of the new browser that tests all their new features before being released to the regular Chrome versions.)

But why?

Simply put, because it’s annoying. At least Google thinks it is. The backspace button on the keyboard is of course more commonly used to delete the previous character when you’re using a word processor or filling in a form on a webpage.

Unless you’re cursor is blinking inside an online form, the backspace button takes you back a page. And how many times have you thought you were inside an online form but you weren’t and you accidentally left the webpage, losing all the form data you had already filled out?

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That is basically the reasoning used by Google. Additionally, Google claimed that a mere 0.04% of page visits resulted in someone pressing the backspace button.

If they do decide to remove it for all their versions, the backspace function will still work for other browsers like Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer and Firefox, but it is entirely possible those browsers may eventually follow suit, especially if the move is well received.

But a total removal of the backspace function still hangs in the balance. Many commentators have expressed disappointment at the news, something which Google seems to have anticipated. They reassured their users that the function can still be explicitly enabled for those that want to keep it, but turned off by default for the rest of us.

What do you think? Do you use the backspace button to go back a page? Or do you think it’s time this function was put to rest. Let us know.

Did you know…? Not only can you use backspace or use the browser back button, but Alt+Left Cursor also takes you back a page, and Alt+Right Cursor takes you forward.