
Target="_blank" - leovander
I am new around here and I was wondering if anyone has ever suggested setting the links to target=&quot;_blank&quot;. I realize it is easy to open links in another tab, I just wanted to know why the news section would want to be navigated away from.
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ColinWright
Oddly enough, this has been suggested, and discussed, several times in the
past. Here is a selection:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=516933](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=516933)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1621892](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1621892)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1866268](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1866268)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2111082](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2111082)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2353291](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2353291)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2469065](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2469065)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3560941](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3560941)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3695029](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3695029)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4880204](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4880204)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5085659](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5085659)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5284186](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5284186)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5919030](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5919030)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5966176](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5966176)

------
rpicard
I actually made a Firefox add-on because I wanted to do that. It also does a
few other things, but that was the main thing that I wanted.

[http://robert.io/alter-hn/](http://robert.io/alter-hn/)

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unfletch
I can't speak for HN's motivations, but my view as a web developer has always
been that, in general, target="_blank" is bad. My reasoning is twofold: 1)
It's unnecessary. Opening a link in a new tab is easy for the user to do with
a keyboard modifier, if that's what they want. 2) Worse, when you use
target="_blank" you force that behavior on every user. There's no keyboard
modifier to negate that behavior and keep the link in the same window.

~~~
ScottWhigham
_Opening a link in a new tab is easy for the user to do with a keyboard
modifier_

Yes, on a desktop or laptop computer. Not so easy on a phone/tablet.

I don't think it's bad in the least, not unless it's overused or used
improperly. If a "login" link opens a new window, that's obviously poor use.
If it's a link along the lines of "view this supporting article that's on
another site, then come back here and join the discussion", clearly you want a
new window opened - both the author and the reader want that done. Does the
target site hijack the "back" button in the browser? Who cares - I've opened a
new window/tab and, when I'm done, I'll close it and return to the article I
was reading.

~~~
unfletch
_" Yes, on a desktop or laptop computer. Not so easy on a phone/tablet."_

I've never used Android, but it's dead simple in iOS. Just tap and hold.

~~~
ScottWhigham
Same in Android.

------
Sealy
Middle clicking on a link brings it up in a separate tab.

If your mouse does not have a middle click button, buy one. It is a godsend.

If not, re-map one of your mouse buttons to be a Button-3. I often remap the
forward button to Button 3. How often would you want to go forward to a page
after you've gone back?

~~~
ScottWhigham
I don't know why the top two comments here assume that everyone browsing is
using a mouse. Many of us use a phone/tablet.

~~~
mkr-hn
I didn't even know mobile browsers supported tabs. I would have assumed a
desktop or laptop too.

~~~
ScottWhigham
I've used the iPhone 3G+, HTC One, and Samsung Galaxy S4 and they all have
tab-based browsing. The Chrome browser even prompts you to "Open in new tab?"
if you long-click a link.

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RiderSargent
If you use Greasemonkey, you can use the following user script (only adds the
target attribute to article links):

    
    
      // ==UserScript==  
      // @grant       none  
      // @match       https://news.ycombinator.com/*  
      // @name        Hacker News Tweeks  
      // @namespace   https://github.com/ridersargent  
      // @require http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js  
      // ==/UserScript==  
      $(document).ready(function() {  
        // set article-related links to open in new window/tab  
        $('.subtext a, .title:not(:last) a').attr('target', '_blank');  
      });

------
pasbesoin
There are bookmarklets (or write your own) that will parse page source and
modify links to this.

------
brudgers
Why did the chicken navigate away from the news page?

To get to the comments.

