IE seems to have a very strange behavior with Google News.
On the desktop, both IE9 and IE10 (perhaps earlier also) seem to treat the links to the different news items as popups. The way the link is controlled is determined by the popup setting in the Tab section of Internet Options. If you specify "Let Internet Explorer decide how popups open" then the link opens in a new tab. Strangely, the Back button is active in this situation, but merely reloads the same link. Though strange, this behavior is fine, because you can return to the main Google News page by selecting the original tab.
In IE10 in the modern UI, the behavior does not seeem to be affected by the popup settings in Internet Options, and the link always opens in the current tab. But here's the kicker: the Back button does not work, so you cannot go back to the main Google News page. It seems that what happens when you click a link is that an intermediate page at news.google.com is first loaded, and this immediately redirects to the news article itself. When you hit the back button you go to the redirect page, which then redirects you back to the article. This is very bad behavior, because to return to the Google News page you have to reload it.
Actually, I now see that Google News behaves strangely in other browsers also (I had never noticed this before, because my usual habit is to right-click on the links and deliberately open in a new tab).
Google Chrome works much like desktop IE -- the link is opened in a new tab (though here the back button is inactive).
In Mozilla SeaMonkey (presumably Firefox also), the link opens in the existing tab, and the Back button works normally, taking you back to the main Google News page.
The only real problem here is IE10 in the modern UI. It is pretty much impossible to read Google News in this browser. I'm sure this could easily be fixed by either Microsoft or Google...
David Wilkinson | Visual C++ MVP
On the desktop, both IE9 and IE10 (perhaps earlier also) seem to treat the links to the different news items as popups. The way the link is controlled is determined by the popup setting in the Tab section of Internet Options. If you specify "Let Internet Explorer decide how popups open" then the link opens in a new tab. Strangely, the Back button is active in this situation, but merely reloads the same link. Though strange, this behavior is fine, because you can return to the main Google News page by selecting the original tab.
In IE10 in the modern UI, the behavior does not seeem to be affected by the popup settings in Internet Options, and the link always opens in the current tab. But here's the kicker: the Back button does not work, so you cannot go back to the main Google News page. It seems that what happens when you click a link is that an intermediate page at news.google.com is first loaded, and this immediately redirects to the news article itself. When you hit the back button you go to the redirect page, which then redirects you back to the article. This is very bad behavior, because to return to the Google News page you have to reload it.
Actually, I now see that Google News behaves strangely in other browsers also (I had never noticed this before, because my usual habit is to right-click on the links and deliberately open in a new tab).
Google Chrome works much like desktop IE -- the link is opened in a new tab (though here the back button is inactive).
In Mozilla SeaMonkey (presumably Firefox also), the link opens in the existing tab, and the Back button works normally, taking you back to the main Google News page.
The only real problem here is IE10 in the modern UI. It is pretty much impossible to read Google News in this browser. I'm sure this could easily be fixed by either Microsoft or Google...
David Wilkinson | Visual C++ MVP