i'm trying open new window using window.open, in event handler click event: var onbuttonclick = function() { alert('start'); window.open('http://www.google.com', 'goog', 'width=800,height=400'); alert('done'); }; var element = document.getelementbyid("button"); element.addeventlistener('click', onbuttonclick); http://jsfiddle.net/egnpe/ i expect alert saying "start", alert saying "end", , window open. works in chrome on linux in firefox 20.0 on ubunutu, first alert, suggesting somewhere in window.open method, control lost. if popup blocker issue, i'd expect notification popup blocked, , window.open should return null , continue throw second alert. any ideas? misusing event handlers or window.open method? after disabling firefox extensions, code above works expected. issue may specific own machine , configuration.