Force external links to reuse existing browser tab with the same domain

Question

I want to do the same thing as this guy: https://superuser.com/questions/263747/force-all-new-links-to-same-domain-to-reuse-single-browser-tab

I asked the same question in the chrome-extensions google group months ago but no one cared to approve my post.

Can I achieve that behavior in Google Chrome using an extension? I tried but couldn't find a way to detect if a link is external or not. With external I mean clicking in a link in a chat window or email.

Thanks,

Answer 1

It appears impossible as of this writing for Chrome. The Chromium project has an FR to this effect for driving it command line, here: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=141942

But no progress in 18 months. In a related FR, here: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=62899

... a Chromium maintainer from Google implies that this can be done with an extension, but doesn't give specifics.

Answer 2

Here is an extension in github that says it does something very similar (I have not personally used it). It only does it for pinned tabs, but the code looks simple enough to tweak.

rjregenold/reusetab-chrome · GitHub

Note it works by deleting the new tab and the bringing the old, pinned tab to the top. I think that may be the only way to do it. Its how the New Tab, New Window - Chrome Web Store extension also works.