It's a bugbear of mine, sites that force you to view content in a new tab or window. The user should always be in control of how their browser behaves, and choosing a new tab or window should be your choice, not that of the people who built the site you're visiting. Most sites that force this behaviour adhere to somewhat old-fashioned notions regarding the way people use the web, fearing that anyone leaving a site is likely never to return. The reality is that the web is elastic, that clicking 'back' is the second most commonly performed action on browser window (the first is clicking a link), and a reader is more likely to become disorientated if a new tab or window is loaded without them realising, and suddenly the 'back' button isn't an option any more.

If you'd prefer to load external content in new tabs or windows, great, you can do it using keyboard shortcuts easily enough... but the choice should always be yours.

hold down the Ctrl button whilst clicking the link, won't that do what you require?

to help.

Right click* the link, select 'Open link in new tab'. Job's a good 'un.

*assumes you have a proper mouse, with more than one button. :)

In most browsers you can set things up so that if you're using a mouse with a scroll wheel, clicking the wheel will open the page in a new tab. If you're using a glide pad, a lot of them will allow you to allocate an area of it that if you tap it it works like clicking the scroll wheel. Some other laptops will open a page in a new tab if you click both mouse buttons simultaneously. I wouldn't like to contemplate using Google without knowing that. My normal way of working is to do a search then open a few tabs with hopeful looking results then look at them one by one without having to return to Google unless I don't find what I'm looking for.

...now I never knew about the middle mouse button - just tried it - thanks for tip