Make links posted by users open in a new window

Question

Most of the time when I follow a user's link, I just want to see their site, look it over, then return to answer their question (not leave SO completely and not come back). Could we make the links users post open in a new window please?

EDIT: I originally wanted this implemented because it's what some other sites did, but I now definitely prefer SO's way. If I want to open a new tab, I middle-click/control-click (or whatever); if not, I just click. I'm in control of what happens. Would never want to go back now.

Answer 1

Just hold down Ctrl when you click - or right-click etc... or in some browsers Shift + click... and so on...

Answer 2

The website should not open new windows. As already mentioned, you can do it yourself when you want.

Jakob Nielsen puts it nicely:

Opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer's carpet. Don't pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management). If I want a new window, I will open it myself!

Answer 3

It could be an option in the preferences, like it is on reddit.

Answer 4

Someone made a user script.

And it works =)

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To install and use that userscript, follow these steps:

1. Install userscript extension for your browser from Tampermonkey website.

2. Once installed, open Tampermonkey context menu > Create a new script.

3. Paste in the JavaScript code that follows.

FYI:

• script is up to date May 2019, and works fine in Firefox 67;

• feel free to @include additional URLs at your convenience.

// ==UserScript==
// @name           Open in new tab any link on StackOverflow or other StackExchange
// @namespace      http://userscripts.org/users/4294
// @description    Makes non-internal SOFU links open in a new tab or window
// @include        https://stackoverflow.com/*
// @include        https://serverfault.com/*
// @include        https://superuser.com/*
// @include        https://meta.stackexchange.com/*
// @include        https://askubuntu.com/*
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
  'use strict';

  var allLinks, thisLink;

  var remoteP = new RegExp("^https?://");

  allLinks = document.evaluate('//a[@href]', document, null, XPathResult.UNORDERED_NODE_SNAPSHOT_TYPE, null);

  for (var i = 0; i < allLinks.snapshotLength; i++) {
      thisLink = allLinks.snapshotItem(i);
      if (remoteP.test(thisLink.getAttribute("href"))) {
          thisLink.target="_blank";
      }
  }
})();

4. File > Save.

5. In Tampermonkey dashboard, make sure the script is enabled.

6. No need to restart the browser, just refresh open tabs, and you're ready to go.

Answer 5

There are more ways to open a link in a new window if it does not by default (Ctrl click, middle mouse click (in some browsers)) than there are ways not to open a new window when a link does by default.

So my feeling is no on this.

Answer 6

I don't know if it's a problem but I personally think it's better to open a link in a new tab so you can just answer/view the question you were visiting before clicking the link.

It's a problem when you want to just navigate from one page to another. Personally I do not want my browser spawning 200 tabs in a single browsing session just by question/answer-hopping (and trust me, that's how far back my browsing history goes on SE in an average session).

Most people spend more time just browsing than answering questions. Forcing links to open in new tabs always is a recipe for disaster.

Answer 7

IMO, this is something that should only be handled by your browser. It really annoys me when a website decides it wants to do funky things with its links. If I want a new tab, I will middle-click.

If you don't want to bother [middle/Ctrl/Shift] clicking, I'm sure you (or someone else) could easily code up a Greasemonkey script for this.

Answer 8

I was about to post a new question, then found this one.

I agree that not all external links should open in a new window as that's just annoying & I know how to do it if I want to.

However, it would be a nice touch if any links to jsFiddle.net and similar sites were automatically rendered with target="_blank", because I am forever clicking through to one, tinkering, and then having to abandon it to refer back to the question.

Especially annoying when the link is 'disguised', such as "I've got an example here".

Answer 9

This would hinder people from using their browsers in the normal way. Target _blank makes sense when following a link would be interrupting the user's work and cause possible data loss. Otherwise, it should be left up to the user where to open the page, and the default should always do so in the current window as that is the browser default, most expected behavior, and the only option that cannot be easily achieved other ways.

This functionality is already in your control. Try:

• Ctrl-Click the the link
• Rick clicking the link and asking to open in a new tab
• Middle clicking on some systems
• Keeping a sidebar or separate window open for following references and drag the links you want to open over to it.

Answer 10

I've noticed on Stack Overflow that if you're following two or three trains of tought, it is almost always better for the links to open in a new window. I think it should be available as a link configuration option.

Answer 11

I love Google Reader that has this by default. It would be great to have it at least as an option. Using keyboard to open to external link means I have to move my other hand to keyboard, this is usually not a problem for me, but sometimes it is, if I hold coffee in my other hand it could be a productivity problem :) , this way I could use only mouse!

Answer 12

This is the one thing on SO that time and again screws me up. I expect external links to open in new tabs and I am constantly closing an external page when I'm done looking at it, only to find that my previous session on SO has disappeared along with it. It's frustrating because it doesn't make sense to me for an external link to open overtop of the site you're viewing.

But I suppose people have different tab-using habits, and I treat a new tab like a new session--a branch in my exploration of a thought. When I want (or more importantly for this discussion expect) the session to branch (after all I don't necessarily check where a link is going before I click it), I mentally treat that external link as a new session that I can kill if I'm through with it. It's a strange feeling to have StackOverflow hide underneath that session and disappear when I kill it.

I don't buy the argument "let me control my browser: if I want a new tab I'll do it myself", primarily because a) tabs are cheap, I want to be able to close a tab and not worry about it getting rid of some unrelated previous session, and b) this just means extra mental effort to decide in advance whether I want to consider an action a branch in my exploration or part of the same thought.

Answer 13

I would say very heartily YES, especially if it is a link to an external site. The standard convention is, if it's a link to yourself, no popup/new window, but a link to an external site should be in a new window/tab.

Answer 14

That's a bad idea, what if you want to navigate to another page in the same tab/window?

Press Ctrl when you click on the link. In most browsers, that causes the tab to open in a new tab. Or click with the scrollwheel of your mouse. At least for me, it causes links to be opened in a new tab.

Answer 15

It would be great if we could have an option on our account to have links posted in answers and questions to open in new windows.

This would be a pretty awesome feature to have, as it is kind of difficult sometimes to have to keep using the middle scroll thing on my mouse to click on links — I rather just click them normally and have them pop up without holding keys down.

Answer 16

TL;DR;
Technology is supposed to be there to serve us, to make life easier. Automated things can most certainly make life easier, but they don't when whatever is being automated is for something which has multiple options which have no fixed or set logical outcome each time - i.e. user preference.

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More indepth to cover some of the points raised here in the answers/comments, and in some of the duplicated questions.

Our choice of new tab or not changes based on scenario, from from one link to another, from one day to the next.
Our decision changes towards whether to new tab or not new tab, and the function (or the programmers of it) don't know which outcome each individual user wants to occur, so it cannot be automated.

I sometimes open linked questions in a new tab if (eg) I'm learning something complex and want to refer back to a previous answer (etc). And sometimes it wasn't the answer I wanted and so don't want to open a new tab with the linked answer.
This extends to many other scenarios with various different link types, where I change my desired outcome, and surely you (reading this) are the same?

In fact, I can sometimes want a different outcome for the same link on different days, depending on what I'm doing that day.

We have various "simple built in and default" options to open a link in new tab (which I sometimes do), however we do not have various "simple built in and default" options to not open in new tab.

Open in new tab by:

• Ctrl left click
• Middle mouse button (as standard or can be set)
• Right click choose "open in new tab"

Not open in a new tab by:

• Fiddle with my browser config
• Install an add-on
• User script
• Probably some other "in depth" options which potentially affect other scripts or cause unforseen problems as it's not "built in/standard" functionality

We can open a new tab currently with a few choices of built in options, however not opening new tabs we do not without scripts or addons etc. By implementing automated new tabs, we force users to have to use scripts and configs to stop them, whereas currently no-one has to do that and essentially everyone is catered for.

The website cannot please everyone, and so the least problematic outcome is catering for those with the least control - those who cannot stop a new tab easily.

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Only some links

It does not matter what links this is for - external, internal, profiles, JSFiddle, etc. In fact, mixing which links do and don't automatically open in a new tab is the problem with the internet and websites.

Some sites open new tabs, some don't, and some even only open new tabs on some of their links.

This is like eating a bag of revels blindfolded.

We just do not know when a link will open a new tab, or when it will not = we have no control as over the internet as a whole it's entirely erratic.

Some people are voting and suggesting for only certain links to be opened in a new tab, eg JSFiddle, or user profiles. So user group A knows that links to "JSFiddle on Stack Exchange sites" open in a new tab. Well, jolly wonderfulness for them users. What about everyone else who doesn't?

What if user group A gets their wish, and user group B wants another "specific" type of link to open in a new tab? user group A then clicks that link and unexpectedly goes to a new tab.

Do we change it back because user group A didn't want that?
Do we change the JSFiddle links to not open in a new tab because user group B doesn't want that?

Who are we serving here? Who gets their own way? Why are we even fighting when the simple solution is that all links (ideally on all websites, but yeah) do the same thing! Then we know what will happen each and every time, and can plan and use our own personal methods and desired outcomes each and every time.

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Internet a better place

If the entire internet "did not" open new tabs automatically, then we could flow through our usage of websites with ease, with predictability and using our own personal methods.
If we want to leave the page then simple click the link, if we want to keep the page and see the linked one as well, open in new tab - this is using technology to our advantage.

Automated new tabs sucks more than a half starved anteater finding a previously undiscovered ant colony.

Automated new tabs are just not logical captain.

Answer 17

This is a design feature which has been ruined by "bad" design; we're so used to that clicking a link gets us a new tab that we're not capable of immediately understanding why SE's way is so great;

1. It leaves you in control
2. It reduces the amounts of needless tabs
3. You get a nice flow in where you're going following the links

What we need to remember is that the system of opening new tabs in a lot of browsers is often that the new tab comes after the other tabs opened from the same page, which is a bit messy if you have opened several links as new tabs and then you want to use the existing window to move on to the next step in the link-flow.

It may take you a while to unlearn the expectation of a new tab/window, but when you get used to it, it's really great.

With this feature, you have the power over the links.

Answer 18

Arrow

An arrow on top-right, showing that a certain link will open in a new tab. Like so:

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Pop-up Message

Taking it even further, include a pop-up that shows upon hovering on such a link: "Keep single tab".

Example (hover over me)

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Preferences

Learning from Android, have a choice when taking an action: "Always - Just once".

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More Preferences

Add this to Settings so every user can choose the default behavior.