Experienced Linux users know about the Vim text editor that is controlled entirely by the keyboard. Now the same type of keyboard control can be added to the popular Google Chrome browser through the Vimium extension. Vimium is a word play on Vim and Chromium because it brings the keyboard control features of the Vim text editor to the open-source Chromium based browsers.
After you have installed Vimium extension in Chrome, you are all set. You do not really have to configure anything. If you want to see all the available keyboard shortcuts, then just type a question mark (?) on your keyboard. This will result in displaying of a list of all the available Vimium commands.
Using these Vimium commands, you can navigate an open webpage, control the omnibar (address bar), search for things on a website, navigate the history, manipulate tabs, and more. For example, if you press yy to copy the current URL to clipboard, press yt to duplicate the current tab, f to open a link from clipboard to new tab, F to open the link in the same tab and more. A big list of the commands can be seen by pressing ? or from the extension options. You can also visit extension’s website (http://vimium.github.io/) to see all the available commands.
Like with all the other extensions, it does not work when you open the Google Chrome webstore or Chrome settings in the browser. And if you want to disable it for some websites then you can click on the small toolbar icon to open the rules editor for Vimium. The rules use REGEX format to add URLs. Vimium commands won’t work on the added URLs. You can use this feature to avoid any interference by Vimium commands in the regular working of a website.
You can get the Vimium extension for the Chrome browser from https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vimium/dbepggeogbaibhgnhhndojpepiihcmeb.