As far as I remember, this is controlled by browser settings. In other words: user can chose whether they would like to open new tab in the background or foreground. Also they can chose whether new popup should open in new tab or just... popup.
I did exactly what you're looking for in a very simple way. It is perfectly smooth in Google Chrome and Opera, and almost perfect in Firefox and Safari. Not tested in IE.
function newTab(url)
{
var tab=window.open("");
tab.document.write("<!DOCTYPE html><html>"+document.getElementsByTagName("html")[0].innerHTML+"</html>");
tab.document.close();
window.location.href=url;
}
Explanations:
Let's say there is windows A1 and B1 and websites A2 and B2.
Instead of opening B2 in B1 and then return to A1, I open B2 in A1 and re-open A2 in B1.
(Another thing that makes it work is that I don't make the user re-download A2, see line 4)
The only thing you may doesn't like is that the new tab opens before the main page.
UPDATE: By version 41 of Google Chrome, initMouseEvent seemed to have a changed behavior, and so this answer no longer works. Thanks to @Daniel Andersson for his comment.
this can be done by simulating ctrl + click (or any other key/event combinations that open a background tab) on a dynamically generated a element with its href attribute set to the desired url