The difference between window.open() and window.location.href is that open() is a window class method , and window.location is a window class property .
1. window.open() is a method in a window class
The call to the window.open() method actually creates a window object that can be stored in a variable and processed according to your program requirements.
To demonstrate that window.open () actually returns a window object, consider the following code:
var mywindow = window.open("http://google.com"); mywindow.name = "Awesome Window"; console.log(typeof(mywindow)); // --> "object" console.log(mywindow.name); // --> "Awesome Window"
The reason your code opened an unwanted window is because you called window.open() , whose sole purpose is to open a new window.
2. window.location - a read-only property in the window class.
Although window.location is a read-only property, window.location has a built-in shortcut function that allows you to assign window.location , which has the same effect as calling window.location.assign() , which does not return window, but uses object of the root window to assign a new URL, whereby the newly assigned URL will be loaded in the browser window where javascript has been assigned to assign the location.
If you are bookmarking a script, then using window.location is the best way to capture the current URL of the window and assign it to the url string of your program.
The reason you may find that you get unexpected behavior in different browsers is because there is no official standard standard set for the window object, so every browser can implement it behind the scenes.