re. forcing new window or new tab: One nearly universal use that I find probably acceptable is when you click to get a "printable version" nearly all sites open the pv in a new tab or new window.

A couple of "governent sites" open every click in "new," which is somewhat annoying¹. Additionally annoying is that when you download pdf documents that the gov (e.g. is SCOTUS) has thoughtfully provided they all have the same filename, and if you save a dozen without inserting a different name for each one you end up with only the last overwrite.

(Some Microsoft servers have begun to slip into the same "one name for all" habit.)

But all that "public information" is supposed to be a secret anyway, and it's only there to give the illusion that you've been informed.

¹ While the current html standard is "posted" at the W3C site, actually reading it requires you to prety much click to a new URL for each page (or paragraph) of the document and then to click on to each subparagraph of the paragraph; and I believe I saw a note that the 4.01 Spec is close to 400 pages. Three clicks away from the TOC and I'm pretty much lost as to where I am in the doc, without a whole lot of assembly and reformatting so I may never read the whole thing (again).

John