Majority of sites that have links open them up in a new tab upon clicking. This behaviour would be great on HN (at least the main page) so that way I can click on a link, read it, and close it. This way I don't navigate away from HN, and don't have to worry about opening a link in a new tab myself.<p>Here's the quick obvious template with addition of the target property:
<a href="http://www.link.com" target="_blank">
My amazing link title here
</a>
I don't agree.<p>I think it's typical for a middle-button click and/or control-left-click to open a link in a new tab. That's easy to do, and so we get to choose new tab or same tab ourselves, rather than having the website make the decision for us.<p>My habit with HN is to open a link by middle-clicking both the post link and the comments link. So I get both the post and its comments in side-by-side tabs. It's convenient for me, but people who just want to use a single tab can still do so.
Agree with others stating that links should be left alone. Just middle or ctrl-click to open in a new tab if you want to do that. Adding the target attribute would remove the option to open in the same tab, which I often want to do.
Looks like somebody built a chrome extension for this <i>EXACT</i> purpose (literally with HN in mind)<p><a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/open-external-links-in-ne/pmgjfdndcgbblimbigekghdmgkjbffba?hl=en-US" rel="nofollow">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/open-external-link...</a>