How to Prevent Chrome Tab Flashing When Opening Background Tabs in JavaScript?

Simulating Background Tab Opening to Avoid Chrome Flashing

In JavaScript, opening a new tab while maintaining focus on the current tab can be achieved using the following code:

open('http://example.com/');
focus();

However, this method causes a brief flicker of the new tab in Chrome. To avoid this issue, consider using the following approach:

Simulating Key Combinations

Chrome supports opening tabs in the background through specific key combinations. You can simulate these combinations using JavaScript and programmatically open background tabs.

The code below demonstrates simulating a Ctrl click event on a dynamically created element:

function openNewBackgroundTab(){
    var a = document.createElement("a");
    a.href = "http://www.google.com/";
    var evt = document.createEvent("MouseEvents");
    // The tenth parameter of initMouseEvent sets the Ctrl key
    evt.initMouseEvent("click", true, true, window, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
                                true, false, false, false, 0, null);
    a.dispatchEvent(evt);
}