Is it possible to focus on a <div> using JavaScript focus() function?

Yes - this is possible. In order to do it, you need to assign a tabindex...

<div tabindex="0">Hello World</div>

A tabindex of 0 will put the tag "in the natural tab order of the page". A higher number will give it a specific order of priority, where 1 will be the first, 2 second and so on.

You can also give a tabindex of -1, which will make the div only focus-able by script, not the user.

document.getElementById('test').onclick = function () {
    document.getElementById('scripted').focus();
};

div:focus {
    background-color: Aqua;
}

<div>Element X (not focusable)</div>
<div tabindex="0">Element Y (user or script focusable)</div>
<div tabindex="-1" id="scripted">Element Z (script-only focusable)</div>
<div id="test">Set Focus To Element Z</div>

Obviously, it is a shame to have an element you can focus by script that you can't focus by other input method (especially if a user is keyboard only or similarly constrained). There are also a whole bunch of standard elements that are focusable by default and have semantic information baked in to assist users. Use this knowledge wisely.

document.getElementById('tries').scrollIntoView() works. This works better than window.location.hash when you have fixed positioning.

You can use tabindex

<div tabindex="-1"  id="tries"></div>

The tabindex value can allow for some interesting behaviour.

• If given a value of "-1", the element can't be tabbed to but focus can be given to the element programmatically (using element.focus()).
• If given a value of 0, the element can be focused via the keyboard and falls into the tabbing flow of the document. Values greater than 0 create a priority level with 1 being the most important.

<div id="inner" tabindex="0">
    this div can now have focus and receive keyboard events
</div>

I wanted to suggest something like Michael Shimmin's but without hardcoding things like the element, or the CSS that is applied to it.

I'm only using jQuery for add/remove class, if you don't want to use jquery, you just need a replacement for add/removeClass

--Javascript

function highlight(el, durationMs) { 
  el = $(el);
  el.addClass('highlighted');
  setTimeout(function() {
    el.removeClass('highlighted')
  }, durationMs || 1000);
}

highlight(document.getElementById('tries'));

--CSS

#tries {
    border: 1px solid gray;
}

#tries.highlighted {
    border: 3px solid red;
}

To make the border flash you can do this:

function focusTries() {
    document.getElementById('tries').style.border = 'solid 1px #ff0000;'
    setTimeout ( clearBorder(), 1000 );
}

function clearBorder() {
    document.getElementById('tries').style.border = '';
}

This will make the border solid red for 1 second then remove it again.