I feel it would also be good if we could have "noopener" included as well on the rel if the setting is to open the links in a new window.
This is for a number of reasons...
the new page runs on the same process as your page so If the new page is executing expensive / large javascript calls potentially the calling page's performance will also be impacted...
opening links (with target="_blank") is also a security vulnerability as the new page has access to your window object via window.opener.
This would also potentially give an uplift from a Google perspective as it's one of their best practices for improving quality in a site.
I agree that this would be worthwhile if people have ticked, “open links in new window” for the widget.
From @davidcolen in a comment on separate pull request at https://github.com/studiopress/simple-social-icons/pull/77.
I agree that this would be worthwhile if people have ticked, “open links in new window” for the widget.
Reference: https://developers.google.com/web/tools/lighthouse/audits/noopener