Close Tab Quickly with a Shortcut Key in Firefox

Firefox has a ton of shortcut keys, but this is one of the most useful. I had written before about how to select a specific tab with a keyboard hotkey, which I use to easily switch back to my RSS reader of choice (Google Reader).

Today I was wondering how I could quickly close a tab that I had opened. When using Google Reader, using the “v” hotkey will open up the currently selected item in a new tab. I wanted a simpler way to close the tab than having to hit Ctrl+F4, which is a little more difficult to use.

Here’s the shortcut key to quickly close a tab in Firefox:

Ctrl + W

This key combination is much easier to use.