Some of the most useful shortcuts are discovered accidentally. This little tidbit is no different.
It’s a pretty well documented fact that the “back” gesture works quite well when navigating through the official Twitter client for Mac. If you are within sub-menus and do a 2 finger swipe backwards (right to left), you can traverse all the way back to your timeline.
What I was unaware of is what happens when you perform the opposite gesture. Using these gestures in a web browser, for example, will take you back and forward across pages you’ve visited, and this was exactly what I was trying to do when I figured this out. In an attempt to use the “forward” gesture on a web page, I was mistakenly focused on Twitter, and the cursor was hovering over a tweet that contained a link. The link was then opened in my active browser!
If you are unaware, the “forward’ gesture is a 2 finger swipe from left to right on your Track Pad or Magic Mouse.
I have to figure this shaves off a solid second from my work day, as opposed to clicking on the link, which allows me to get away with the occasional sneeze.