Web-Facing Change PSA: Removal of "_current" as a frame target keyword

[Dominic Farolino]

Contact emails

d...@chromium.org

Summary
We are removing support for _current as a special browsing context target keyword. Previously, Chromium treated "_current" as an alias for "_self" (navigating the current browsing context), in our implementation of the frame targeting algorithm. Going forward, "_current" will be treated as a regular browsing context name (e.g., creating or targeting a window named "_current"), aligning Chromium with the HTML standard and other browsers, where "_current" gets no special treatment.

Motivation
The "_current" keyword is a legacy WebKit/Blink-specific artifact that was never standardized in HTML (the only valid special keywords are "_blank", "_self", "_parent", and "_top"). Use counter data indicates that usage is negligible, well below the threshold for web platform removals (~0.00009% of page loads).

Compatibility & Risk
Gecko / WebKit: Does not treat "_current" as a magic target keyword.
Target Milestone: M153

Resources
ChromeStatus entry: https://chromestatus.com/feature/5121089536262144
UseCounter: https://chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/2835
Chromium bug: https://crbug.com/539212797
CL: https://chromium-review.googlesource.com/c/chromium/src/+/8157779