Death To _blank

Many web page links use the "_blank" target to open in a new tab. This is usually annoying (if I wanted to open a new tab, I would have done so myself!).

Death To _blank removes the "_blank" target from links, causing them to open in the current tab. This script also catches a few other targets (such as "blank" and "_new") that developers use. If you find any targets I've missed, let me know and I'll add them to the list!

You can add pages to a whitelist in the options page, which causes Death To _blank to ignore those pages. I find this useful for sites like GMail that I would rather keep open all the time. You can also specify this as a blacklist, if that suits your fancy.

This script now works on pages that dynamically load additional content using AJAX, such as Facebook and Twitter.


NOTE! This extension does not stop javascript popups (or flash popups, or anything of the like). If you still find links that open up new pages after installing this plugin, they're probably either javascript popups (which I can't do anything about), or other, invalid _blank-like targets (in which case forward me the link and I'll update the extension).


If you have comments/suggestions, please use the Feedback link (or better yet, email me!). Don't post a complaint in your review! I don't get notifications about those. :-(




CHANGELOG

Version 1.9 (2020/10/15)
- Bugfix: previous version of the script did not work when the "Filter HTML forms" option was deselected.

Version 1.8 (2017/12/16)
Big change
- Should be noticeably faster (only monitors updated/added elements on page, rather than rescanning the whole page on modification).
- Added ability to enable/disable by clicking on extension button (also added a toggle in the options page).
- Added the __blank (two underscores) target.
- Requires fewer permissions, should be fewer corner cases that it misses.

Version 1.7 (2015/11/25)
- Allows the user to specify what the "_blank" target should be rewritten to (don't do this if you don't know what it means!).

Version 1.6 (2015/10/25)
- Now disables _blank (etc.) on the tag as well.

Version 1.5 (2014/03/07)
- Now works on HTML forms as well. Can be disabled in the options menu if you prefer (although please tell me why, if you do!)

Version 1.4.3 (2013/11/8)
- Fixed one more migration bug. Sorry 'bout that.

Versions 1.4.1, 1.4.2 (2013/11/6)
- Fix bugs that wouldn't allow upgraders to use this script (sorry!)

Version 1.4 (2013/11/6)
- Exceptions can now be specified as a blacklist instead of the default whitelist

Version 1.3 (2013/9/15)
- Fixes a javascript development error (probably invisible to most people)
- Upgrades to jQuery 2.0 internally, which may make things a bit faster (but is actually probably completely unnoticeable)

Version 1.2 (2013/7/7)
- Now works with pre-rendered pages (frequently generated from Google searches). As a side-effect, now requires the webNavigation permission to know when new pages are loaded or swapped in.

Version 1.1 (2013/6/1)
- Added _hplink to bad targets, which is used by Huffington Post (don't judge me).

Version 1.0.1 (2013/3/10)
- No changes; reuploading due to bug in Webstore.

Version 1.0 (2013/3/9):
- Now works on dynamically-loaded AJAX content. Useful for sites like Twitter and Facebook.
- Added a whitelist option.
- Now requires permission to view your tabs, so that I can know which page you're browsing (needed for the whitelist).

Version 0.9 (2013/3/3):
- Now catch rel=ext and rel=e, which are sometimes used to open new windows in javascript-based techniques.

Version 0.8 (2012/7/3):
- A change in the previous version meant that my script didn't operate while the page was still loading. Fixed now.

Version 0.7 (2012/7/3):
- Various changes due to Chrome updates. No user-visible changes.

Version 0.6 (2011/6/24):
- Added the _newtab target

Version 0.5 (2011/04/29):
- Now works for file:// URLs as well.

Version 0.4 (2010/10/28):
- No longer needs permission to view your tabs or history (mind you, it wasn't making use of this permission before). It still needs permission to access "Your data on all websites", but there's no getting around that -- it rewrites the links on every page you browse!

Version 0.3 (2010/10/28):
- Removes rel=external (which doesn't necessarily open a new window, but some pages use javascript to open such links in new windows).

Version 0.2 (2010/07/21):
- Now blocks the _new target as well.