Is Google Trying to Kill the CAPS LOCK KEY?

Yesterday's Chrome OS Notebook Cr-48 reveal showed that Google had different plans for where the caps lock key normally resides. INSTEAD OF DOING THIS SORT OF THING, Google has mapped to a search key.

That's fine by us, considering the caps lock key these days is mostly useless aside from those who like to troll the comments section. (In fact, I've remapped my caps lock key to backspace.)

Amusingly, Google joked, "We expect this will improve the quality of comments across the web."

For those who feel that they must have that caps lock key back, Google notes that those with the Cr-48 notebook can click on the wrench icon, go into System section inside settings and change the Modifier Key from Search back to Caps Lock.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • xurwin
    We expect this will improve the quality of comments across the web

    and i thought my jokes were bad.
    Reply
  • *INSANE
    ;)
    search key would be great on a laptop like this. i would prefer the search key over the caps key. would be more useful to me!
    Reply
  • wait... will the google chrome laptop trackpad be similar to the buttonless macbook trackpad? because i can't see any buttons.
    Reply
  • NOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo.... I LOVE CAPS KEY.... BAD GOOGLE, BAD GOOGLE
    Reply
  • jgutz2006
    Wait people wont have excuse for 15 failed password attempts locking out their account due to caps lock? IMHO - Caps Lock has been a poor taste joke all of these years!
    Reply
  • molo9000
    bear95wait... will the google chrome laptop trackpad be similar to the buttonless macbook trackpad? because i can't see any buttons.Let's hope that all laptop manufacturers start making trackpads like that.
    Having more than 1 physical mouse button is pointless on a laptop.
    Reply
  • jonpaul37
    About Bloody Time someone stepped up to rid us of that horrible horrible useless key! Google done moved up a notch in my notebook!
    Reply
  • hoofhearted
    No COBOL programming on this laptop :(
    Reply
  • bak0n
    Next They'll Replace The Shift Key!
    Reply
  • nukemaster
    I generally disable the caps lock anyway :)
    Reply