This is the best tip we've seen in ages for the Chrome and Edge web browsers

A Microsoft engineer has just highlighted a really neat tip for the Edge browser - and Chrome, too - that's worth knowing about and sharing.

We must admit, we weren't familiar with this mouse-based shortcut, and we're betting you won't be too. (Although there's bound to be the odd exception and smarty-pants out there, no doubt, who has already discovered this - and we take our hats off to you, in fairness).

This comes from Jen Gentleman, a software engineer and senior program manager at Microsoft (heavily involved with Windows testing). She tweeted about the functionality that comes in handy when you browse to another web page, and then wished you had opened that link in a new tab (to keep the previous page up).

In this case, you can simply click on the back button in Edge or Chrome with the middle mouse button (likely your mouse wheel), and voila: the browser will open the page you just left in a new tab.

That's certainly more convenient than having to click back to the previous page, and then reopen the other page in a new tab.

This isn't a brand new feature (like, say, the recently introduced built-in VPN), Gentleman later clarifies, although she's not sure when it was brought on board for Edge (it could have been around for quite some time, in fact).

So, file this under 'neat discoveries of existing features' (or 'yawn, we already knew this' for some of you) and keep in mind that the middle mouse button is useful elsewhere. Click Refresh with the middle button, for instance, and it'll open a duplicated (refreshed) copy of the web page in another tab.

As the saying goes, you learn a new thing - or two - every day. Middle-clicking on a link opens that in a new tab automatically, too, in case you weren't aware (making it up to a nifty trio of middle button tricks - heck, just try middle button-clicking everything for today).