Last modified: 2014-11-18 18:07:07 UTC
The search suggestions which appear in a dropdown when the user starts typing the page title are probably the most effective way of locating something quickly; however, you can only use them to open the requested article in the same tab. I've often found myself in a position where I want to check what a related article says, and - because it had a long name, or I didn't remember the exact wording or spelling - the search suggestion was by far the simplest method of finding it, but I didn't want to navigate away from the current page (which might have been an edit window with changes I didn't want to lose). Since the search suggestions are not real links but divs which simulate link behavior on a click event, one cannot middle-click them to open in a new tab; I have to select the right one with the keypad, press the right arrow to copy the text to the search box, cut it, open another tab, type en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ then paste it - rather troublesome, especially if one has to do it frequently. If the suggestions were real HTML links, middle click (and Ctrl-click, bookmarking from right-click menu, and all the other UI methods browsers normally provide for links) would work normally, and I see no disadvantage to it.
Assigning to Trevor for further comment (search box is under development)
*** Bug 28759 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I was going to open a similar bug, but glad I don't have to :) I often use the search for simple titles but want to keep my page and open it in a tab. But neither the title suggestions nor the "Search for <phrase>..." at the bottom can be opened in a new tab.
In gerrit: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/23674/ (based on patch by Ebrahim Byagowi).
Change I87940ca8 (linked in previous comment) merged.