Open a URL in a new tab (and not a new window)

I'm trying to open a URL in a new tab, as opposed to a popup window.

I've seen related questions where the responses would look something like:

window.open(url,'_blank');
window.open(url);

But none of them worked for me, the browser still tried to open a popup window.

Nothing an author can do can choose to open in a new tab instead of a new window; it is a user preference. (Note that the default user preference in most browsers is for new tabs, so a trivial test on a browser where that preference hasn't been changed will not demonstrate this.)

CSS3 proposed target-new, but the specification was abandoned.

The reverse is not true; by specifying certain window features for the window in the third argument of window.open(), you can trigger a new window when the preference is for tabs.

Stack Overflow Q#4907843, score: 1145