When I Open a Link in a New Tab, Switch to it Immediately

Tabbed browsing is certainly a useful feature that allows users to work with multiple web pages at the same time in tabs within a single browser window.

Tabbed Browsing with Multiple Tabs in Google Chrome

By default, when you open any link present in the current page in a new tab it opens in the background and you will have to again click it or use ALT+Tab keys to switch to it and view its contents. This doesn’t make a ton of sense to many users as they basically click on a link to see the page and read whatever the link points to. And for those who don’t want to jump to newly opened tabs immediately as they would like to finish reading the current page first, this default feature is of great use. Just as there are different strokes for different folks, some like the default feature whereas some like to switch to newly opened tabs immediately.

If you are the one who prefer to jump to the newly opened tabs immediately, then you will have to makes some change in your browser ‘Tabbed Browsing‘ settings. Here is how you can set this options in different web-browsers.

How-to Set the Option to Switch to Newly Opened Tabs Immediately in Internet Explorer

Open your Internet Explorer and from the menu bar options go to Tools and select Internet Options

From IE menu bar go to Tools and select Internet Options

Go to Tools and click Internet Options

Under the General tab of the Internet Options window, click on Tabs Settings which opens Tabbed Browsing Settings for your Internet Explorer. There tick the option that says ‘Always switch to new tabs when they are created’ and click OK.

Internet Explorer Tabbed Browsing Settings

Enable Tabbed Browsing & tick the box – ‘Always switch to new tabs when they are created’

That’s it! From now-on-wards whenever you open a link in a new tab, you can switch to it immediately.

How-to Set the Option to Switch to Newly Opened Tabs Immediately in Mozilla Firefox

To set this option in the most popular browser – Mozilla Firefox, all you have to do is go to Tools >> Options from the menu bar and navigate to the Tabs section to check the box where it says ‘When I Open a Link in a New Tab, Switch to it Immediately‘.

Go to Firefox Tools >> Options and check the box - When I Open a Link in a New Tab, Switch to it Immediately

“Under Options check the box – When I Open a Link in a New Tab, Switch to it Immediately

Finally Click OK and you are done with it!!

How-to Switch to Newly Opened Tabs Immediately in Google Chrome

Unfortunately there is no inbuilt option to enable this feature in Google Chrome and most chrome users vote for this feature to be added in the coming versions.

Here are some of the alternatives that I explored which are quite effective in getting what we wanted – Switch to Newly Opened Tabs Immediately.

Hold down the Shift key while clicking with your middle mouse button on a link, and it will open in a new tab in the foreground.
Hold Shift key and Click the Middle Mouse Button
If your mouse doesn’t have a middle button, then another way to get the same effect is to hold down the Ctrl + Shift keys while clicking with the left mouse button on a link which you want to open in new tab and switch to it immediately.
Hold Ctrl + Shift keys and Click the Left Mouse Button
If you don’t want to involve your keyboard at all in this process, then the best option for you is to click and drag the link you want to open to the tab bar.