Yes, there's a keyboard shortcut:

• Same tab (search or URL):
  • Mac: Return
  • Windows: Enter

• New tab (search or URL):
  • Mac: option + Return
  • Windows: Alt + Enter

I'm not aware of any setting for it, however.

Wonderful, thank you!

Nice, but how do you get this behavior by default, without having to press the Alt key?

WoofGrrrr said

Nice, but how do you get this behavior by default, without having to press the Alt key?

I'm not aware of any setting for this. I don't know know if any new add-ons have this feature , it might not be possible yet.

Yeah. I kinda figured. Mostly a rhetorical question.

I'm so tired of "Alt-Enter" as the answer to this question, which has been asked 100 different ways in different forums, because Firefox 57 breaks TabMixPlus. I switched away from Chrome to Firefox because Chrome refused to offer such simple options, and now I'm forced to stay with Waterfox because Firefox does the same. There are options for this in search box and bookmarks, I just don't understand why Mozilla can't build this in as an option for the urlbar.

mrisch said

There are options for this in search box and bookmarks, I just don't understand why Mozilla can't build this in as an option for the urlbar.

I don't think any support volunteers can answer the question of what technical issues are involved.

Since add-ons have always handled this, Mozilla has no data on how popular it is. If you haven't already posted on the feedback site, you could add your voice there:

https://qsurvey.mozilla.com/s3/FirefoxInput/

Thanks for the response. For future reference, this was opened as a bug/feature request 3 months ago, and there were many comments but no actions. It appears that now there seems to be some movement. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1394304

Hi mrisch, thank you for the link. It seems someone who knows Firefox's code needs to step up and write the patch. With some input from the UI people.

The way the search bar works is a partial analog, because if you switch browser.search.openintab from false to true, the usual keyboard submission methods are flipped: Enter gives a new tab, and Alt+Enter uses the same tab. But the arrow button doesn't seem to be flipped: clicking the arrow still replaces the same tab, while Ctrl+clicking the arrow still directs to a new tab. So maybe that's not fully worked out, either?

On mine, the arrow opens a new tab from the search bar, but maybe that's tab mix plus at work. That's definitely how it works for the URLbar. As for the code, someone already put it into a nightly 3 months ago (by default, not by option), but then was asked to back it out, so the basic codebase is there. The question is whether it's going to get put in or not by someone.

I wonder if they had just implemented it as an option the first time, whether it would have stuck.

mrisch said

On mine, the arrow opens a new tab from the search bar, but maybe that's tab mix plus at work.

Yes, it's TMP that makes it consistent.

The problem with the earlier patch was that it forced the search bar and address bar to behave the same way, which turned out to be annoying to other people, so someone needs to build a new preference and all the related code to check the preference, and then all the code to implement the preference.

I think even that was done (though it may have needed tweaking to make the arrow work), and even went through design review! https://reviewboard.mozilla.org/r/173094/#review179758

I don't know why they killed this, but it appeared to be mostly done. I think there is enough input that folks will consider it again. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1393349 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1226546

I hope so, at least!

From looking at the bug reports, it seems there's some analysis paralysis going on. In the mean time, users are still suffering.

What's wrong with the simple solution? Add a new config option for just the Address Bar that will cause addresses entered to ALWAYS be opened in New Tabs. There are already such options for bookmarks, the search bar, etc, so why not the address bar?

Do this instead of trying to do something fancy, like using the same config option to cover *BOTH* the Address Bar and the Search Bar. Or using a config option to SWAP Enter and Ctrl-Enter.

And while I am at it, one of the things discussed in the bug report(s) is the notion that, in the future, the Address and Search Bars will be combined, so why bother? I must say that I am NOT a fan of combining the behaviors or Search and Address Entry in the same UI widget. To me, searching for something and entering a known web address are not the same thing. I have always turned OFF the ability to search from the Address Bar.

Here you go:

New Tab from Location Bar

tanin said

Here you go: New Tab from Location Bar

Thanks - this is a helpful workaround. I've been using it for a while now. It's still a kludge, though, because it relies on loading in the current tab, then spawning a new tab and going "back" in the current tab. This means you lose form data and have some other negative consequences sometimes.

But it works OK and is worth a shot for anyone needing this functionality. There's an open issue that's progressing (I hope).

The New Tab from Location Bar extension does help, but it seems to cause other problems (see issues #21 & #21 in the support pages for this add-on.)

When you click a link from Google News, Gmail, or Google+, for example, it opens up *TWO* tabs. One is blank, and the other is the one I expected. When I disable this extension, the problem goes away.