

HN Suggestion: Can we please set links to open in a a new tab by default? - toddhd


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ColinWright
For me, I have the option of opening in a new tab by using middle-click, or
opening in the same tab with left-click, and I use both options. If stories
opened in new tabs by default then you would remove from me one of the options
I use, without providing any benefit.

Oddly enough, this has been asked about before, and there has been some
previous discussion. Here's a search:

[https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=title%3A%28ope...](https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=title%3A%28open+new+tab%29)

There have also been people who have supplied GreaseMonkey scripts and
bookmarklets. You might like to have a look at a few of these to see what I
mean:

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

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

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

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3549314](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3549314)

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

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

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

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

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robbiea
I personally think control + click is not that difficult.

~~~
toddhd
"Click" is 50% easier :)

I do UI\UX design and coding for a living, so when I look at things like this,
it flags me. For example, let's say that someone designed a car where you had
to stick your finger in your ear while turning the key to start it. I could
honestly say to you, "It's not that difficult to stick your finger in your ear
while turning the key", and that's true enough. But... would you buy that car?
I mean, why is it really necessary in the first place?

Most news aggregate web sites that I visit on a daily basis link to a new tab.
This is very helpful, because I can browse down the page and click the links
I'm interested in without losing the page I'm on at the time, then go read the
articles, and tab back and forth to the list of news articles I was looking
at. This works well and is how I "expect" it to work.

As the owner of a news aggregate web site, I want people to be "on and
reading" my site. I don't want them to navigate away from my site, I want them
to STAY on my site. To that end, having every single link on the page navigate
away from the site makes no sense whatsoever, and requires extra care on
behalf of my readers to use the site in a way that it should really work in
the first place. That's inefficient and not in the best interests of HN or its
readers.

~~~
shyn3
This seems more demographic oriented.

If this was a how to site for people new to the internet open in a new tab
would make sense but because the users on this site are more likely to be
power users the control + click is almost second nature. I guess going the
other way of ctrl + click opening in same tab could work also.

On mobile this seems to be a actual pain point because press and hold then
open in a new tab is a hassle.

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ig1
You could easily write a chrome plugin that added that functionality (it'd be
4-5 lines of code) if it's an issue for you.

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mavhc
There's an option in browsers to choose to open in a new tab if the link
doesn't, but no option for the opposite.

