Shortcut to open new tab with selected text in Chrome

Question

I need this shortcut when some website display link in plain text, or I wanna google some words in the page.

Right-clicking the menu can do this; but I'd like only use the keyboard which is much more effective.

Now I use Cmd-C, Cmd-T, Cmd-V, Enter to do this.

Solution 1

There's a built-in service that opens a selected text URL in a default application. It requires the URL to have a scheme though and doesn't fall back to a Google search or anything.

---

You could also create a custom service that opens a URL or a Google search page:

input="$(cat)"
input="${input%\n}" # remove a possible trailing newline
if [[ "$input" =~ '://' ]]; then
    open "$input"
else
    open "http://www.google.com/search?q=$(echo -En "$input" |
    ruby -e 'require "cgi"; print CGI.escape($<.read.chomp)')"
fi

Solution 2

Open Automator.app and create a new "Service". Choose "Service receives selected text", and choose "Google Chrome" as the application.

Then, drag "Run AppleScript" from the left pane to the right and paste:

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "Google Chrome"
        set myTab to make new tab at end of tabs of window 1
        set URL of myTab to input
    end tell

    return input
end run

Then, save this Service, and give it a name like "Open selected text in Google Chrome".

Finally, go to System Preferences » Keyboard » Keyboard Shortcuts and look under "Services". Here, create a shortcut for your new service, e.g. Cmd-Shift-O.

This does currently not work for searching since Chrome doesn't treat text as an URL for opening. See @Lri's solution for this.

Solution 3

It can be done much simpler:

1. Select the text.

2. Drag the text to your address bar.

3. Press Enter.

Solution 4

For the benefit of anyone looking at this question in 2014 or beyond, Google Chrome has implemented this feature.

View more solutions

Comments

[Admin]

It would be cool if an extension made all words links when holding down ctrl

[Admin]

What's wrong with pressing three keys or two clicks?

[slhck]

That doesn't work in Chrome on OS X (guessing because the OP uses Cmd keyboard shortcuts)

[Tamara Wijsman]

@slhck: So you are just guessing entirely? It's remarkable that a lot of people are unaware of drag moving and/or copying, and I don't think those shortcuts are used as an alternative...

[slhck]

Well, I'm pretty certain, because why would one use Cmd keyboard shortcuts on Windows? You wouldn't even have to drag, you can just right-click. But as I said, dragging doesn't work for just selected text.

[slhck]

Of course, it only works when actual URLs are highlighted. Do you have an idea how to make Google actually search for custom text, without resorting to UI scripting?

[brevno]

@slhck I edited the answer. And if anyone is looking for a service or script that would support local paths or multiple URLs, see selection open.scpt in lri.me/aspack.

[Zach]

@TamaraWijsman update ansr–drag to tab bar permits replace or create new tab w/o interfere of focused tab. However, BIG UX flaws; (#1) redundant effort needed for a simple user action—frequent usage starves time+energy of both user and power. (#2) click+drag often results initiating new selection and/or scroll jump. (#3) Support restricted to browsers. macOS script service is a better route for frequent usage but again lacks support outside of macOS in other operating systems such as unix/linux, windows/uwp. +1 for only answer without setup and support outside of macOS.