Add Back to Opener Explainer #1057
Conversation
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@aluhrs13 and @erik-anderson could you help take a look at the explainer? |
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| ## Introduction | ||
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| A relatively modern paradigm has emerged where chat interfaces (e.g. ChatGPT, Google AI mode, Copilot, Gemini) often open content in new tabs rather than opening in the current tab. This makes sense for chat interfaces, as this approach helps the user with multitasking and preserves the conversational context. This is in addition to various search engines that already opens links in a new tab (e.g. Yahoo, Bing, Perplexity). However, this causes tab proliferation, and also prevents a natural back navigation flow. |
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Not sure I follow that this is relatively recent - target=_blank has existed for a long time
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I think I was trying to draw attention to the fact that upcoming link originators (i.e. chat interfaces) defaults to opening in new tab.
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| A relatively modern paradigm has emerged where chat interfaces (e.g. ChatGPT, Google AI mode, Copilot, Gemini) often open content in new tabs rather than opening in the current tab. This makes sense for chat interfaces, as this approach helps the user with multitasking and preserves the conversational context. This is in addition to various search engines that already opens links in a new tab (e.g. Yahoo, Bing, Perplexity). However, this causes tab proliferation, and also prevents a natural back navigation flow. | ||
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| This proposal introduces an opt‑in mechanism that signals the browser to insert the opener as an initial entry in the new tab's history. Additionally, when the user navigates back in the new tab, the UA will automatically return focus to the originating tab and close the new tab, provided the originating tab is still active. This feature enhances user experience by supporting a logical back navigation flow, and reduce tab clutter at the same time. |
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I can't pinpoint it exactly, but I'm concerned about the overindexing on tabs, which isn't an HTML concept. I think we should reframe this a bit to include the user perception (tabs) and the HTML concept of a document. Many references of "tab" should probably be "document" here and below.
| - If the opener tab is unavailable (e.g., closed or navigated away), the new tab will navigate back to the opener's URL in the current tab. | ||
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| ## Alternatives Considered |
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did we consider a new target? IE something like target=_blankWithHistory?
This PR introduces an explainer for Back to the Opener, a proposed feature to improve navigation when links open in new tabs.
It allows developers to opt-in (via
window.open()or<a>tag attributes) to have the opener tab added to the new tab's history. This enables a seamless "back" navigation to the opener, closing the new tab and reducing tab clutter, especially useful for search and chat interfaces.