You're Not So Special Autor: Ethan Glasser-Camp

Links in tweets open in new tabs. Frequently I'll follow a link in a tweet, read it, close it, and then forget that I've already read it. Later, I'll see that I have tweet open that links to some article, and I'll click on it to discover that it's an article I've already seen. To avoid this, I've gotten in the habit of closing tweets as soon as I click any links in them. But then I'll forget what the context for an article or why I read it in the first place. If only there were a "back" button that could take me back to the thing that linked!

Some sites just seem to think that they can decide what to do when I click a link. That's stupid. If I want a link to open in a new tab, I'll hold Control when I click it. Maybe this behavior is supposed to drive "engagement" or SEO, or maybe those websites think they are "special" and that I won't want to leave. Sorry, Twitter, but You're Not So Special.

Note that there are some legitimate uses of target="_blank" to open in new tabs or windows. Some websites have "help" that pops up in a new window. That's fine and I don't want to interfere with that. This extension represents an attempt to fix the problem surgically.