Question about opening links on MeFi February 3, 2025 12:29 PM Subscribe
This may have been asked before - but is there a rationale for opening links in the same tab as the post, as opposed to opening the links in a new tab? I prefer the latter, but can live with the former, I'm just curious about the reasoning. My somewhat-educated guess would be that the 'same tab' behavior is compatible with browsers that don't support tabs, but that is just a guess.
My rough recollection is that back when that was decided, most people were reading on desktop, and it was easy enough to open links in a different tab (browser setting or CTRL-Click) but kind of a pain in the ass to open them in the same tab if the site was set to do it differently. And then when a lot of site usage switched to mobile browsers where open in New Tab is a bet annoying, no one ever reconsidered the issue. Somebody can probably dig up the actual MeTa threads where we discussed the issue, though.
If you set your profile to open links in a new window, will they open in a new tab on a mobile browser?
posted by jacquilynne at 12:49 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]
If you set your profile to open links in a new window, will they open in a new tab on a mobile browser?
posted by jacquilynne at 12:49 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]
Amusing to realize this c.1999 design decision on MetaFilter preexists tabbed browsing in Opera, Mozilla, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:40 PM on February 3 [5 favorites]
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 1:40 PM on February 3 [5 favorites]
Yep, my recollection is that it was one of those "Let's just use the minimum viable configuration for links and the user can customize it if they'd like"
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 1:58 PM on February 3 [4 favorites]
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 1:58 PM on February 3 [4 favorites]
I don't think it's clear from previous comments, so.
If you open your preferences when logged in, you can set your account to always open links in a new tab. It's the second checkmark available.
You need to be logged in for that to function, of course.
posted by ursus_comiter at 2:04 PM on February 3 [25 favorites]
If you open your preferences when logged in, you can set your account to always open links in a new tab. It's the second checkmark available.
You need to be logged in for that to function, of course.
posted by ursus_comiter at 2:04 PM on February 3 [25 favorites]
This may have been asked before
2003: Would it be possible to have external links open in a new tab in my browser, instead of a new window or the same window?
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:46 PM on February 4
2003: Would it be possible to have external links open in a new tab in my browser, instead of a new window or the same window?
posted by Johnny Assay at 6:46 PM on February 4
22 years ago people may have been less familiar with the internet and how browsers work. I'm not sure this should be a site-specific setting.
posted by kirkaracha (staff) at 10:10 PM on February 4
posted by kirkaracha (staff) at 10:10 PM on February 4
Oh, I totally agree that things have changed in 22 years. I was just amused that someone was asking for the same feature that I wanted when I joined the site two decades ago.
If you open your preferences when logged in, you can set your account to always open links in a new tab. It's the second checkmark available.
Technically this tells your browser to open the link in a new window, not a new tab. However, I think many modern browsers will automatically short-circuit this command and interpret "open link in new window" as "open link in new tab" unless you explicitly say "no, I want a new window". For example, in Safari there's a "Open pages in tabs instead of windows" setting that can be set to "always", "automatically", or "never".
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:42 AM on February 5
If you open your preferences when logged in, you can set your account to always open links in a new tab. It's the second checkmark available.
Technically this tells your browser to open the link in a new window, not a new tab. However, I think many modern browsers will automatically short-circuit this command and interpret "open link in new window" as "open link in new tab" unless you explicitly say "no, I want a new window". For example, in Safari there's a "Open pages in tabs instead of windows" setting that can be set to "always", "automatically", or "never".
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:42 AM on February 5
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posted by bowbeacon at 12:48 PM on February 3 [13 favorites]