After purchasing a new laptop without physical mouse buttons I was quickly frustrated by the fact I couldn’t middle click in a browser to open links in a new tab.
To improve my experience browsing the web I decided to write a new Google Extension. I approach the problem in multiple ways and tested for usability and speed, finally I settled on allowing users to click and hold the mouse button down on links within the browser for ½ second – this will open the link in the background in an adjacent tab.
I uploaded this to the Chrome Web Store to allow other users to enjoy the same functionality and, more greedily, to have it automatically install on all my machines.
Objectives
- Improve usability of Chrome for laptops
- Learn the Google Extension framework
Current Status
- Maintained (recently updated to improve success rate)
- Over 350 active users as of January 22nd 2012
- Over 500 active users as of April 16th 2012
Chrome Web Store: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jphlcgnallcfbnpgmblmlmkehbffnoph