The concern with Esc is that if you hit more than 3 times the user will be stuck on the page. The first 3 presses would trigger the redirect, the 4th press would be intercepted by the browser and stop the page load.
> Ctrl+W or middle click on tab isn't that far off
The point of shift x3 is that it's consistent across keyboard layouts including laptops. I have a laptop where the location of the ctrl key is moved inward to make room for the function key. I frequently hit Fn instead of Ctrl and don't realize what's happening until I look at my keyboard. And that's not when I'm in distress.
Same goes for middle click. It's not a consistent interaction. On some laptops you can left click and right click to get a middle click. On my laptop, it's a three finger tap.
> Never mind that computers and internet access is ubiquitous enough these days that "using the family computer" for this sort of thing isn't really needed in the first place.
In a normal situation, this is true, but this is UI design for people in extraordinary situations. Their abuser may have taken their cellphone or other devices and may not have a choice in what computer they use or when they have access to it.
Nothing about this prevents private windows or Ctrl+W (assuming they have another window open so it doesn't look suspicious that they're staring at a blank desktop), it just gives victims a quick action they can take to prevent immediate retaliation.
I think how Steam handles game rankings is a good example of this. They separate out "All Reviews" from "Recent Reviews". Helps identify current reception of a game which may have had a buggy release.
Apparently, Verizon's outage page doesn't actually say if there's an outage. You have to log in to see if there's an outage. Too bad logins are failing after ~10 minutes for me.