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Sites defeat open in new tab

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Some sites are defeating [Ctrl]-click to open in New Tab (my Firefox setting). In these sites [Ctrl]-click causes the original page to open.

I have to use the [Right-Click] Context Menu, [Open Link in New Tab] option.

Here's an example site: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/videos/

[Ctrl]-Clicking on any of the individual articles below the main video just reopens the same page, using Context Menu works.

Any way to fix this behavior? To have ALL sites comply with my Firefox tabs setting?

Some sites are defeating [Ctrl]-click to open in New Tab (my Firefox setting). In these sites [Ctrl]-click causes the original page to open. I have to use the [Right-Click] Context Menu, [Open Link in New Tab] option. Here's an example site: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/videos/ [Ctrl]-Clicking on any of the individual articles below the main video just reopens the same page, using Context Menu works. Any way to fix this behavior? To have ALL sites comply with my Firefox tabs setting?

All Replies (4)

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Each site that does this does it a bit differently, but the bottom line is that a script intercepts a regular click, Ctrl+Click and Shift+click and replaces them with a new behavior (in this case, adding the video number into the address of the page). As you discovered, you can bypass this script using the right-click context menu. Another method is to "middle-click" using the mouse scroll wheel (if it's a mouse with a scroll wheel).

I'm sure there's a crafty way to strip the scripts off of the videos, but I haven't tried to program one.

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Wouldn't a better way is to have Firefox filter-out any script that defeats Firefox default key behavior?

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What normally happens is; when you left click on a link, that page changes to the new page. Some links on some pages are set to open new windows, but not all that many. The best policy I have found is; When I find a link to check out, I open that link in a new window or tab. Once I am done, I can close or save a bookmark, then go back to the original page I was on.

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Hi Tecknomage, that's a tough one, since many sites are designed to minimize page loads by loading new content into the same page, and may not work correctly if the content is loaded in a new tab instead. Breaking those sophisticated applications if someone happens to be holding down Shift or Ctrl would be a poor result. I think the right-click and middle-click workarounds might have to suffice for now until the exact change is better defined and tested.