My point is that if I want it in a new window, I can just right-click and make it so. If I want your fancy-pants 1998-HTMLing link in the same window, I have no convenient way to do that.

This has been a paid pronouncement of the Eidetic Diatribes Division of the Shiny Red Ball Corporation. Eideteker is available to rant at and on a subject of your choice, for a modest fee. For more information, e-mail KLondike-5255 at Like I Care period Net and ask to speak to Sophia.

I suspect you may be mistaken about that 'nearly everyone has tabbed browsing' thing.

It's being rolled into the next IE, if it hasn't already been. Or so I'm told. I wouldn't know; I've only used IE when I've been literally paid to do so (i.e., at my last job).

people are fucking assholes. That includes my mom.

What is tabbed browsing?

I have to do it in the website I administer because my boss/client is a totally fucking clueless internet illiterate frog who nevertheless owns a big advertising supported site and she is afraid that if links don't open in a new window people will leave her site forever, because, you see, they are afraid of the back button. Go fucking figure. But on the other hand given that her customers & advertisers are as dumb as she is & are all using old versions of IE (I've had this computer for 6 years and I never knew you could change your home page! Oh, I was supposed to clear out the cache? What is that? I've never done it before!) well, she's probably right.

/bitter. /me is having a bad day of idiotic emails from said boss/client.

I see your point, but the audience my web site reaches -- I manage a site for a state agency in Delaware -- often isn't using even one-or-two-versions-old browser software. As a rule, I only set off-site links and PDFs to open in a new window.

Also, now that I look into it, FireFox Tools:Options:Tabs lets me force those links into a new tab or into the same tab. I haven't tried that, but wouldn't it work?

Someone needs to put the World Wide Web to sleep now. It's just in too much pain.

I realize I'm the boy who cried wolf when it comes to stupid one-liners, but it's an honest question: what is tabbed browsing and why would I want it?

*gives Hugh a noogie*
here

What is google and why would I want it?

"I suspect you may be mistaken about that 'nearly everyone has tabbed browsing' thing."

Yes. Everyone is not like you, Eidteteker.

Eat shit, puke, and cry.

Also, now that I look into it, FireFox Tools:Options:Tabs lets me force those links into a new tab or into the same tab. I haven't tried that, but wouldn't it work?

I don't know why I have never seen this option. And I've looked!

Thanks so much. This proves that loud and annoying behavior is rewarded!

Everyone is not like you, Eidteteker.

Thank god. It's taken me awhile to corner the market on me. For the record, when I said "nearly everyone," I meant people for whom making an "internet connection" is not done by banging two sticks together and then dialing up with the resulting smoke signals. And yes, I do tend to hang out in the more computer literate parts of livejournal. And yes, they're fairly secret. And no, I'm not telling you where they are because you'd only ruin them.

Hey, sorry, puke & cry, I just get my back up when snarked at. I was kind of looking more for answers to the "why would I want it" part, which folks around here might provide better than Google, but no matter. Carry on, web elite!

I like it because it keeps my desktop tidier when I'm surfing and I can click back to especially good pr0n much faster.

I'm a mac user, have a right-clickable mouse, and I hate tabbed browsing.

I like it because I can keep related tabs within one window (right now, for example, I've got a window with a bunch of work-related tabs, and I've also got the, uh, other window), and because it sometimes seems to mean a smaller resource load, and because, after using it for years, I'm accustomed to it.

Eideteker, I'm with you 100%. If I want a new tab or window, I'll open it myself. Your site is not that important.

Also, now that I look into it, FireFox Tools:Options:Tabs lets me force those links into a new tab or into the same tab. I haven't tried that, but wouldn't it work?

Ooh, shiny! Kudos to Eid for his elitist question! I never would have thought to look for this option otherwise!

I love tabs because I can flip between them more easily. I have five tabs open right now, Gmail being the first. When I'm looking at MeCha, I can see in the top of the Gmail tab when I have new mail, and then hit Apple+1 to straight to it. None of this flipping-between-windows nonsense for me!

My point is that if I want it in a new window, I can just right-click and make it so. If I want your fancy-pants 1998-HTMLing link in the same window, I have no convenient way to do that.

Of course a lot of these same people use no-right-click scripts. Which can be gotten around more or less with the firefox plugin and others can be avoided by hitting shift or clicking enter when the box pops up saying "you may not right click" or whatever - the menu still pops up sometimes after that. But they are still annoying.

I wrote a very polite email to a nursery that I liked explaining why a variety of scripts including a no-right-click script and a browser-crashing applet that made butterflies fly around on the screen were making their site hard to use and I received a VERY hateful email from them basically telling me to fuck off. I proceeded to copy/paste that email to every gardening list (about 30 at that time) that I was on. Apparently that was not an isolated incident, they no longer have a web presence now.

Of course some mostly good sites have used the no-right-click script too and I will never understand why. I used to just add any site using one to my hosts file so I wouldn't end up visiting again and getting frustrated when I tried to open a link in a new window.

Oh and to anyone that doesn't like tabbed browsing... give it time. I hated it when I first tried Firefox but I wanted to support the project rather than using IE and everybody else kept saying how great the tabs were and after a while I got used to them and now I would be lost without them. SO useful.

Yeah I hate new windows too. In any form. Which is why I like tabbed browsing. As far as I'm concerned, each application deserves one spot on my Task Bar, including the web browser, and having lots of web browsers open is ugly and annoying.

But I think folks are on the right track in regards to links opening in new windows (OMG people are leaving my SITE don't let them LEAVE!), and the no-right-click script (OMG people are trying to steal my images or hack into my source code STOP THEM!) People who don't "get" the web. I'll add sites that make browser buttons dissapear, or which force windows to conform to specific dimensions, to my hate list. I would have no problem if all these features were disabled in future versions of Javascript. Very irksome.

I have a little Firefox extension called Stylish, which lets you make user-defined styles for websites you visit. To be honest, I haven't been able to get it to work very well with styles I've written myself (I've been trying to turn Metafilter black), but it does come with a built-in style that turns your pointer into a cross-hair if you mouse-over any link that is set to open in a new windows. It's very useful - gives you a bit of warning.

A future version? You can disable all that crap in any current version of firefox, it's all in the preferences.

Oh I know...but I mean disabled. By default. In every browser. So no-one feels the need to use it anymore.

Oh and to anyone that doesn't like tabbed browsing... give it time.

I have. I've come to the conclusion that tabs are a solution for shitty window managers. I turned off tabs in Safari because they screw with exposé, which for the uninitiated, is the shiznit.