[vinceguidry]

I'm getting rank sick of the growing number of websites killing the functionality of the back button. That, combined with Chromes senseless refusal to implement opening clicked urls that are on another domain in a new tab, means I'm often forced to click-and-hold the back button to get somewhere. Incredibly annoying.

[4ad]

I don't understand at all what you mean. To open pages in a new tab you middle click the link. Pages that automatically open in new tab are annoying. If Chrome has something that stops this, I'm extremely happy. The user should control whether a page opens in a new tab or not, and indeed the user can do that -- left click or middle click.

[vinceguidry]

I'm on a Mac, I don't have a middle mouse button.

[dysfunction]

Cmd-click. On a Macbook trackpad or magic mouse you can also set three-finger tap to middle click (with third-party tweaks like BetterTouchTool).

[vinceguidry]

> On a Macbook trackpad or magic mouse you can also set three-finger tap to middle click (with third-party tweaks like BetterTouchTool).

Ick. I hate doing two-finger taps as it is. I don't believe one should need anything other than a pointing device with one button to browse the web effectively. Needing to hack in ways to simulate extra buttons is bad design. Why not use a keyboard then?

[dysfunction]

It's not Chrome's fault Apple doesn't put a middle button on their mice like everyone else. Though personally I prefer 3-finger tap to using buttons at all on a PC laptop trackpad.

Even if Chrome always opened external links in a new tab with a left click, you'd still want middleclick functionality to browse the web effectively; I constantly open multiple tabs from the same domain- for instance, to open a HN comments section without navigating away from the front page.

[dubcanada]

No, people not using target="_blank" is bad design. It's not Chrome's fault people can't code external links right.

[vinceguidry]

> It's not Chrome's fault people can't code external links right.

People shouldn't have to specify which links are external and which aren't, it should be inferred from the URL being accessed. In the rarer cases where the server is saying to open an external link in the current tab or an internal link in a new tab, that should be specified in the HTML. For the people that want specific global behavior. i.e. all new tabs to be opened in current tab, that should be a configuration option in the browser.

[zevyoura]

Command-click also works.

[vinceguidry]

I could also just left click and hold the back button to get where I need. Neither is satisfactory.

[wetmore]

Is your keyboard really that far away?

[vinceguidry]

Many times when I'm surfing the web, I'm in my recliner under a blanket, with only one hand peeking out to control the trackpad. I don't want or need to use the keyboard. It works perfectly fine until some stupid website stops the back button from functioning. Login is accomplished using LastPass, hell I can even sign up for new services 80% of the time w/o the keyboard using the form fill function.

[sp332]

I think you can drag the link up to the tab bar, and it will open in a new tab.

[snowwrestler]

> Pages that automatically open in new tab are annoying.

This is your opinion--why should it rule the way a browser works for everyone? I think hover navigations are annoying--should Chrome break those too?

[moogleii]

Ctrl-click works as well.

[ajanuary]

There are a bunch of plugins to do that. It seems to me like a behaviour that's better left to a plugin.

[vinceguidry]

That's a terrible use case for a plugin. UI behavior should be well-defined and declaratively specified. Installing a plugin just to tell the browser what to do with a mouse click is total overkill.

[StuffMaster]

Web UI is well-specified. Click is follow hyperlink. Right click is browser context menu. Middle click is open in new tab, also available from the context menu.

Whether a link opens in a new tab without user intervention is up to the link, and is way overused IMO.