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Comment by waitwhat | Hacker News Reader

There is a general problem with browser UIs: it's never clear whether a link will open in the same tab, open in a new tab, or do neither and actually do something ajaxy instead.

This problem is made worse on pages with embedded flash video, because guessing wrong and attempting to recover by clicking the back button will usually result in losing your place in the video and/or throwing away the content you had buffered.

(I don't happen to agree with the OP about the correct solution, but putting a bit more meat on the bones as to what the problem is.)

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I found that in the vast majority of cases, just opening in a new tab if I want to be sure not to leave the page will do the right thing. When it doesn't, well.. that's one more broken UI I'm not going to use again.

Thus, I always assume that any link will open in the same window, or do something disruptive, so if I don't want to leave the page, I'll middle click. Can't remember the last time that did not work.

But perhaps I'm just lucky, and all the sites I frequent have decent UIs.

... if I don't want to leave the page, I'll middle click. Can't remember the last time that did not work.

There are a bunch of places in the new Twitter interface where it doesn't work, which drives me nuts.

Well, that's very much the problem in Youtube too. If you are on the channel page and watching a video there, you can't middle click on the "show comments and more.."

Sure, there are workarounds, but in a UI, the defaults should be sensible, because the vast majority of users never see anything other than the defaults. Unfortunately, it is arguable that on many sites the defaults just aren't sensible.

YouTube's "see all" comments button, for example, doesn't load the comments inline with ajax, but instead loads a new page in the current tab, losing my place in the video and my buffer. (At least the paginated comments are ajax now.)

if I don't want to leave the page, I'll middle click. Can't remember the last time that did not work.

Middle-click has never worked on my laptop trackpad. (Also: posterous' lightbox script is borked)

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