Mobile Safari’s multiple window interface is amazing, but it lacks the ability to explicitly open a link in a new window. Being a fan of tabbed browsing in desktop browsers, I find it irritating not to be able to leave the current window in place while I follow a link or two.
I don’t have a clever hack to force Safari to open a link in a new window, but I do have the next best thing: a javascript bookmarklet that opens the current page in a new window. This makes following a link in a new window possible, if a bit inelegant.
To install the bookmarklet:
- Drag the Clone Window link below to your bookmark bar in desktop Safari. Or if you sync to Internet Explorer, right-click the link and choose Add to Favorites, then save it to the Links folder. Clone Window
- Now that you have the bookmarklet on your browser’s link bar, connect your iPhone to your computer and sync bookmarks through iTunes.
To use the bookmarklet:
- In Mobile Safari, tap the bookmarks button (open book icon) at the bottom of the screen.
- Locate the Clone Window bookmark; it’s in the Bookmarks Bar folder if you sync with Safari, or in the Links folder if you sync with IE.
- Tap the Clone Window bookmark. Mobile Safari opens a copy of the current page in a new window. You may now follow any link on the page, secure in the knowledge that the page you started from will still be there in another window.
Happy browsing!
