Why links should always open in a new tab (and how to do it)

For PC (and laptop!) users, RSI is a real risk. For cellphone and tablet users, there is a "texting thumb" to worry about. This means it is our duty, as web developers, to reduce the number of clicks or thumb movements required to navigate a website.

If you do not make your links open in a new tab, it is doubling, at least, the amount of action required by the user and should not be considered by any serious programmer. There is, luckily, a simple method from which to get a link to open in a new tab with a single click.

I am releasing this method, in full, at this link https://pastebin.com/68YzV3Bk

>>6
Wow. It's normal to want to open tabs in the background, the most common case involves reading an article with links peppered throughout but wanting to read them later rather than interrupt your reading of the article. In this, extremely common, scenario, you simply middle click to open these links in a background tab. Only a fool, completely unacquainted with statistics, would set middle click to open a foreground tab knowing how common the need for background tab opening actually is. In the, relatively rare, case you want to open a new tab but look at it immediately? That is what the method in OP accomplishes cross-platform.