450023 - New pages should be opened in a new tab

Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

(Firefox :: Tabbed Browser, defect)

Description

[islandjunkie]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008070208 Firefox/3.0.1
Build Identifier: Firefox/3.0.1

"New pages hould be opened in a new tab" doesn't work for nearly half of the links out there on the web.

Sometimes it works, half the time it reloads the clicked link into the same tab, despite the fact that force "open in new tabs" option is set.

This has been the case for FF1, FF2, and now still present in FF3.
This bug has been reported several times, but by FF3, the feature is still quirky and at best, unreliable.

I love FF, and I surf exclusively via FF.  However, this has become a major annoyance.



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.select -> options -> Tabs -> new pages should be opened in -> a new tab
2.surf a lot, clicking on various links
3.
Actual Results:  
unreliable feature; some links are correctly opened in a new tab, many reload in the same tab.

Expected Results:  
regardless of the visited web page's construction, FF should override the website, and, if "open pages in a new tab" is turned on, should open a new tab for that link, every single time.

Comment 1

[Kevin Brosnan]

Only links that specify a new window are opened in a tab. In the source of the
page the link would have target="_blank" or target="_new".

Comment 2

[Jo Hermans]

For all these years, you misunderstood the words 'new pages'. This setting is for pages that try to open a new window (with the target attribute), so that you can force them to open in a new tab instead. It's is NOT for every link you click on.

If you really want something like this, make a habit of middle-clicking the link instead of left-clicking the link, which forces this behavior (it's a shortcut for 'open in new tab'). If you don't have a 3 button mouse, clicking the scrollwheel or clicking both the left and right button also works.