What is the deal with the link behavior using Gmail in Firefox? The default behavior in Gmail is to open any link in a new page, which in Firefox opens in a background tab.  This is fine and dandy as I like to keep a tab with Gmail open at all times. The problem I run into is that on every other webpage I cmd-click (middle click with a mouse) to open a page in a background tab. When I do this in Gmail, the page will open in two background tabs. This is not how Safari behaves; I have no idea about IE.

A cursory glance at the Gmail source for a message shows links being preceded by some javascript:

top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)

I don’t know Javascript, but I suspect this code, particularly the window variable, is what Firefox mishandles.  I generally believe that websites should let the user decide how pages are open, and not force a certain behavior.  This extends to browsers.

(Yes, I could remember that Gmail’s links act differently, but links are such a core component of any website that they should behave the same everywhere.)