Ask HN: Why doesn't HN open submitted links in a new tab? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why doesn't HN open submitted links in a new tab?

4 pointsanilm8239 comments

A bit trivial, I know, but I've always found it slightly annoying to have to press the back button to return to HN or explicitly right click and open the link in a new tab myself. Why doesn't HN automatically open external links in a new tab?

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Hold control when you click to open a link in a new tab. You can also middle-click if you have a mouse. Hold shift and click to open in a new window. Where a link opens is in your control, as it should be.

I'm aware of the ways to force open a new tab, I was just curious as to why this wasn't the default. IMO, it provides for a friendlier user experience.

If a website forces a new tab when you don't want to open a new tab (as I don't), that's not friendly at all. There's no easy way to override that behavior, while it's easy to get the behavior you want.

It might provide a better experience for some people, but what about people who don't want links to open in new tabs?

Opening links in new tabs is trivial (e.g., middle-click). Does every web browser support an equally simple way to force a link to open in the current tab?

(On a related note, a problem I've been having lately is that many JavaScript-heavy sites have links that fail to open when middle-clicked. I wonder whether the people who were previously making unusable Flash sites have moved to JavaScript.)

HN is the site that modified the way I click on links. I started using the middle button instead of browsing like it was 1999.

Because that's how it was done in Web 1.0. Also, I always thought sites created new tabs for "stickiness" which is not an issue on a non-pageview-whoring site.

I agree, In general I prefer a new tab, its what has become "conventional" for better or worse, but its also nice to be able to navigate a few pages deep on the linked site, then just close the tab to get back to HN quickly.

My thoughts exactly. Call it sheer laziness, but the fact that the linked site is not opened in a new tab prevents me from navigating too deep into the linked site.

Configure it in your browser and move on with your life.

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