Programmatically open new pages on Tabs

Question

I'm trying to "force" Safari or IE7 to open a new page using a new tab.

Programmatically I mean something like:

window.open('page.html','newtaborsomething'); 

Answer 1

You can, in Firefox it works, add the attribute target="_newtab" to the anchor to force the opening of a new tab.

<a href="some url" target="_newtab">content of the anchor</a> 

In javascript you can use

window.open('page.html','_newtab'); 

Said that, I partially agree with Sam. You shouldn't force user to open new pages or new tab without showing them a hint on what is going to happen before they click on the link.

Let me know if it works on other browser too (I don't have a chance to try it on other browser than Firefox at the moment).

Edit: added reference for ie7 Maybe this link can be useful
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/ieextensiondevelopment/thread/951b04e4-db0d-4789-ac51-82599dc60405/

Answer 2

You can't directly control this, because it's an option controlled by Internet Explorer users.

Opening pages using Window.open with a different window name will open in a new browser window like a popup, OR open in a new tab, if the user configured the browser to do so.