# Chrome Browser Question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chrome-browser-question/708064>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 23, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chrome-browser-question/708064 "2014-12-23T23:20:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\
**Post date:** [December 23, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chrome-browser-question/708064/1 "2014-12-23T23:20:15Z")

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I like Chrome and have been using it as my primary browser for about a year now. I’m not sure how I did it, but I somehow changed the behavior and would like to change it back to how it was before.

When I am in a tab, looking at my Yahoo! mail for example, and click on a link in my message it used to open a new tab right next to the one I was working in and bring up whatever URL I had just clicked on. Now it replaces the URL that was in the tab I was working in (Yahoo! Mail goes away) and doesn’t launch an adjacent tab. Any idea how to get it to do that again?

It’s annoying because I keep losing things when I close a tab and forget to go back instead. :smack:

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**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chrome-browser-question/708064/2 "2014-12-24T01:13:34Z")

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Normally links open in the same browser tab unless they have a target parameter set. Maybe you are just clicking different links than you did before? It looks like there are Chrome extensions you can install to make the default behavior opening a new tab, or you can do Command-Shift-Click (Ctrl-Shift-Click on Windows), or right-click and choose “Open Link in a New Tab”.

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**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\
**Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chrome-browser-question/708064/3 "2014-12-24T01:59:31Z")

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The [Chrome Toolbox extension](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-toolbox-by-google/fjccknnhdnkbanjilpjddjhmkghmachn?hl=en) used to provide this option. However, at some point this year Chrome stopped supporting the plug-in architecture that made it possible. That might be why it used to work and doesn’t any more.

As **Greg Charles** said, there are shortcuts to open links in a new tab (another is to click the mouse middle button or roller wheel). You might also search for a new extension or Greasemonkey (Tampermonkey) script. It probably isn’t a hard script to write, so maybe someone has done it.