

HN Please Add Target Property to Links - pszczurko

Majority of sites that have links open them up in a new tab upon clicking. This behaviour  would be great on HN (at least the main page) so that way I can click on a link, read it, and close it. This way I don&#x27;t navigate away from HN, and don&#x27;t have to worry about opening a link in a new tab myself.<p>Here&#x27;s the quick obvious template with addition of the target property:
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.link.com&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;
My amazing link title here
&lt;&#x2F;a&gt;
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ggchappell
I don't agree.

I think it's typical for a middle-button click and/or control-left-click to
open a link in a new tab. That's easy to do, and so we get to choose new tab
or same tab ourselves, rather than having the website make the decision for
us.

My habit with HN is to open a link by middle-clicking both the post link and
the comments link. So I get both the post and its comments in side-by-side
tabs. It's convenient for me, but people who just want to use a single tab can
still do so.

~~~
pszczurko
Using the middle-button click and/or control-left click open still works the
same with the 'target="_blank"' specified so this wouldn't affect the way you
do things anyway

~~~
ggchappell
Exactly. Doing "target='_blank'" would not help me. But it would be
detrimental to others.

In a site full of ordinary users, maybe "target='_blank'" is called for. But
HN is aimed at the kind of people who are knowledgeable about their computers.

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Spoom
Agree with others stating that links should be left alone. Just middle or
ctrl-click to open in a new tab if you want to do that. Adding the target
attribute would remove the option to open in the same tab, which I often want
to do.

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MalcolmDiggs
Looks like somebody built a chrome extension for this _EXACT_ purpose
(literally with HN in mind)

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/open-external-
link...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/open-external-links-in-
ne/pmgjfdndcgbblimbigekghdmgkjbffba?hl=en-US)

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steanne
if i want things to open in new tabs, i can do that myself. that's not a
decision the web designer should be making for me.

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J_Darnley
That doesn't do a new tab it does a new window. It is always the feature I
have to work around whenever I have to install a new browser.

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brudgers
Feature requests should be made using the link at the bottom of this page [and
many other HN pages].

..

