Getting Links in WordPress Comments to Open in a New Window
WordPress has gotten better over the years about seo and helping bloggers and site owners to build traffic, but it still has a couple of weaknesses. One of the features that I am not fond of is how it opens links in comments in the same window. If this bothers you too, here’s the solution…
First a hat tip to Adham who worked this out on a project we’re doing.
What you want to do is find the file wp-includes/formatting.php
and replace this line
return $matches[1] . “<a href=\”$url\” rel=\”nofollow\”>$url</a>” . $ret;
with
return $matches[1] . “<a href=\”$url\” rel=\”nofollow\” target=\”_blank\”>$url</a>” . $ret;
That’s it. People can still click a link in the comment and go to that page, but now getting back to your fabulous content isn’t so difficult for them.

sorry – doesn’t work
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING in /home/sites/dandragomir.biz/public_html/wp-includes/formatting.php on line 1294
Wont work with target=”\blank\” eighter
doesn’t work…why keep this posted?
I have written instructions how to do this on my blog:
http://www.willwebdeveloper.com/2010/06/open-comment-authors-website-link-in-a-new-window/