Emacs has a nice package called expand-region[1] which works in a similar, although more context-sensitive fashion. There's a nice intro screencast by Emacs Roc

Emacs has a nice package called expand-region[1] which works in a similar, although more context-sensitive fashion. There's a nice intro screencast by Emacs Rocks[2] as well. The context-sensitivity is handled by having a list of expansion/contraction functions to try in sequence, so your region grows outwards by different units. Or you can specify a specific expansion function (like, er/mark-outside-python-string) upfront. As an example, the expand function list I have for a python buffer open is: (er/mark-word er/mark-symbol er/mark-symbol-with-prefix er/mark-next-accessor er/mark-method-call er/mark-inside-pairs er/mark-outside-pairs er/mark-comment er/mark-inside-python-string er/mark-outside-python-string er/mark-python-statement er/mark-python-block er/mark-python-block-and-decorator er/mark-outer-python-block) [1] https://github.com/magnars/expand-region.el https://github.com/magnars/expand-region.el or from ELPA [2] http://emacsrocks.com/e09.html http://emacsrocks.com/e09.html