Always let me open it in a new tab (if I want to)

8/13/2014

I consider this to be a common problem.

So you're browsing the web, and some kind of list appears. The results from a web search, for example. And you think to yourself: "sweet, I want to look at that, and that and that". So you hold in Ctrl or whatever and open it in three new tabs. Now you can look at them all in order, and at least two of them will have loaded by the time you read them.

Please let us make this happen for all things on the web. Don't force me to open something, go back, then open the next thing, and so on.

Thanks.

5 Comments

Stian

8/13/2014 02:39:19

You know, you could just use middle mouse button.

Thorben Bochenek

8/13/2014 03:04:16

We did some research at Opera about this usage pattern. There are good reasons to prefer the "go there, go back" workflow.

In a nutshell, consider the following situation: You search for the webpage of the Oyafestivalen. One result looks promising.
* Case 1: It is what you want. If you went there directly; no extra open search taby.
* Case 2. It is not what you want. You just click the back button, the button is in a well defined area; it's even simpler than going back to a search tab.

My point: If you are not "researching" but "searching", opening in the same tab is probably a bit simpler. Most people are searching more often than they are researching.

Christian Jonassen

8/13/2014 03:15:24

I don't mind it if things open in the same tab by default. However, I *do* mind it if a site won't let me open things in a new tab if I want to.

Thorben Bochenek

8/13/2014 03:23:44

Well, what kind of pages do you have in mind? I can hardly think of any that forbid doing that ... maybe Facebook?!

Christian Jonassen

8/16/2014 05:38:05

Weebly forbids it when viewing the list of drafts.
YouTube used to have this problem with their player (the related videos within the player) for a long time.
My Todo manager, Todoist, forbids this (and I'd like it because I could then easily get one list per tab).
Gmail allows it for emails, but it removes everything else around the email when you do it, which I don't think I like. For labels, it sort of works (but I can only ctrl+click on emails and not labels, yet, I can middle mouse click on both when I use Chrome).
And yes, when searching on Facebook you cannot open in new tabs either.

Always let me open it in a new tab (if I want to)

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Christian Neverdal Jonassen

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