It works when I hold down the Shift key and middle-click the link, so that works in this case, but I can't seem to change the default action via a pref.

I cannot get anything opened from the address bar to open in the background. For example:

• Alt+Enter in the current URL to open it in a new tab (switches immediately)
• Ctrl+click a match in the autocomplete drop-down to open it in a new tab (switches immediately)
• Middle-click a frequently visited site on the history/triangle drop-down (switches immediately)

If you want to access one of your Most Visited sites, there is a smart bookmark folder for that and you can set a preference to launch bookmarks in the background. But the history drop-down adjusts for recency and therefore is not strictly speaking your most visited sites.

cor-el said

It works when I hold down the Shift key and middle-click the link, so that works in this case, but I can't seem to change the default action via a pref.

Oh, I see, Shift switches the foreground/background behavior of middle-click. Ctrl+Shift+click works, too. Not sure which is more/less awkward.

thank you all for your replies, they were really helpful