As a matter of interest, forcing the user's web browser to open a link in a new page/tab is number 9 on a well-known list of The Ten Worst Mistakes in Web Design.

I agree that it should be high up there, and I try to avoid it in my own web site designs. But there are times when, for the majority of users, it's really the user-friendliest thing to do.

Please, Mr W3C, don't send the boys round....

"If I were a shadow, I know I wouldn't like to be half of what I should be."
Mr Otsuka, the old black tomcat in Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)