I was doing some snooping on the web and found window.location.hash = \"etc\" to be a widely adopted method to update the browser\'s location without reloading
I don't have a definitive answer, but first I would try:
Prepending the hash mark (#) on to the value (i.e. use window.location.hash = "#etc").
Register a handler for the window.onhashchange handler.
Alternatively, you might consider using history.pushState if what you are trying to accomplish is make the back button return to the previous logical location (it's not clear to me what you are trying accomplish, whether you just want to jump to a section on the page, or something more complex).