I can't believe how long we browser users have tolerated this fundamental flaw. Ever since the target="_blank" attribute was added to the HTML anchor tag, we have lived with the uncertainty of whether a link would replace the current page or open a new page. I don't know if Jakob Nielsen ever screamed about this issue, but I found it to be a really annoying, fundamental oversight that I bumped into almost every time I clicked a link. (My penchant for opening lots and lots of browser windows is legendary, which led to this.

Once again, I'm feeling a little less cranky than I used to. (If I get too damned cheerful, I may have to rebrand my blog! There, I'm cranky again.) Thanks to TargetAlert, I can finally, after the better part of a decade, see a visual indication of whether a link opens in a new window or not. Kudos, Michael Bolin, kudos! And thank you to the Mozilla Firefox team for creating a platform that allows such extensibility!

Too bad URLinOne doesn't currently work with Firefox. D'oh!