# Firefox—when clicking Hook link from web app, Firefox creates blank new tab

**URL:** <https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/firefox-when-clicking-hook-link-from-web-app-firefox-creates-blank-new-tab/5755>\
**Category:** Discussion & Help\
**Created:** [October 18, 2022, 2:22am UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/firefox-when-clicking-hook-link-from-web-app-firefox-creates-blank-new-tab/5755 "2022-10-18T02:22:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ashcreighton](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/user_avatar/discourse.hookproductivity.com/ashcreighton/32/2485_2.png) [@ashcreighton](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/ashcreighton)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2022, 2:22am UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/firefox-when-clicking-hook-link-from-web-app-firefox-creates-blank-new-tab/5755/1 "2022-10-18T02:22:31Z")

</div>

When I click on a Hook link from my task management web app in Firefox, it works 👍 but with the inconvenient side effect of creating a blank “about:blank” tab in Firefox 🤔

Is there any way around this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bchend](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/dbc845/32.png) [@bchend](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/bchend)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/firefox-when-clicking-hook-link-from-web-app-firefox-creates-blank-new-tab/5755/2 "2022-10-19T00:28:07Z")

</div>

Could you please post a sample Hook link you click to open in your task management web app? Also what’s the task management web app name?

Thank you

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LucB](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/user_avatar/discourse.hookproductivity.com/lucb/32/2228_2.png) [@LucB](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/LucB)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 8:24pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/firefox-when-clicking-hook-link-from-web-app-firefox-creates-blank-new-tab/5755/3 "2022-10-19T20:24:56Z")

</div>

Welcome to the Hook Productivity Forum , @ashcreighton. and thanks for asking.

> [@ashcreighton](#):
>
> When I click on a Hook link from my task management web app in Firefox, it works 👍 but with the inconvenient side effect of creating a blank “about:blank” tab in Firefox 🤔
> 
> Is there any way around this?

the behavior depends not on Hook but on the web app in which you paste the custom link, and on the browser you use. ( hook:// is a custom URL scheme, as are all custom app links, such as x-devonthink-item or omnifocus:/// ). The web app should treat all custom links the same. For instance try pasting the following DEVONthink link:

`[Scarantino The philosophy of emotions and its impact on affective science](x-devonthink-item://8DA71E56-EA97-46EB-8C5D-017365FC3F50)` in your web app. make sure that it appears live, like this: Scarantino The philosophy of emotions and its impact on affective science.

If you click on the Markdown link to `x-devonthink-item://8DA71E56-EA97-46EB-8C5D-017365FC3F50`, in the same browser and the same web app you’ll notice the same effect.

For example, Discourse forum and google docs do not respect custom URL schemes. But Apple Notes and Safari do. If you paste a link that uses a custom URL scheme in Safari macOS 12 web browser, you’ll get a dialog page, and if you “ok”, then you’ll see the “about:” An example would be pasting it in Apple Notes on the Mac where it opens directly. But then if you access that note in `https://www.icloud.com/notes/` ( [Notes - Apple iCloud](https://www.icloud.com/notes/) ) you’ll get the interaction dialog box and the “about”. The “about” in that case is because Safari responds to your clicking the custom URL by presenting you the dialog box requesting permission .

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ashcreighton](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/user_avatar/discourse.hookproductivity.com/ashcreighton/32/2485_2.png) [@ashcreighton](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/ashcreighton)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2022, 11:30pm UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/firefox-when-clicking-hook-link-from-web-app-firefox-creates-blank-new-tab/5755/4 "2022-10-19T23:30:40Z")

</div>

Thanks for the welcome and I appreciate your thoughtful response 🙏

Yes I am aware the issue here lies with the browser—indeed the web app treats all custom links the same, but when I use custom links in Chrome, there is no added about:blank page (or it appears and then is automatically deleted by Chrome within a millisecond). I tested this using multiple web apps on each browser and my findings were consistent.

Incidentally, my task manager of choice is ClickUp, and [your workaround for entering hook links into custom fields](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/has-anyone-used-hook-successfully-with-clickup/2827/4) is brilliant 👏

Hook is proving to be such a task-management game-changer, I just wish I could get around these blank Firefox tabs!

Maybe I’ll just have to live with them ? (I’m not going back to Chrome…)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LucB](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/user_avatar/discourse.hookproductivity.com/lucb/32/2228_2.png) [@LucB](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/u/LucB)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 2022, 12:36am UTC](https://discourse.hookproductivity.com/t/firefox-when-clicking-hook-link-from-web-app-firefox-creates-blank-new-tab/5755/5 "2022-11-04T00:36:33Z")

</div>

Sorry for the delay in responding, @ashcreighton, we were in midst of Hookmark 4 / rebranding. Our solution to these issues will be in Hookmark 5.0. We’ll start a public beta this month if all goes according to plan.