Actually in watir you can not open ulr's in new tab. If you want to open 2 or more web sites via watir in same browser but in new tab, you can not do this. I search on internet but i dint found any solution on this issue,...! suddenly i got some new ideas in my mind.
First open browser via ruby using command i.e
puts `Start /Max iexplore http://google.com`
puts `Start /Max iexplore http://www.port43whois.com/`
puts `Start /Max firefox http://yahoo.com`
OR
require 'win32ole'
ie = WIN32OLE.new('InternetExplorer.Application')
ie.visible = true
ie.navigate("http://google.com")
sleep(1) until ie.ReadyState == 4
ie.navigate("http://www.port43whois.com/",2048)
sleep(1) until ie.ReadyState == 4
ie.navigate("http://yahoo.com",2048)
sleep(1) until ie.ReadyState == 4
it will open all these sites in diff.tabs , then you can use below mentioned method...
A) ie = Watir::IE.attach(:url, 'http://google.com')
ie2 = Watir::IE.attach(:url, 'http://www.port43whois.com/')
ie3 = Watir::IE.attach(:url, 'http://yahoo.com')
B) ie = Watir::IE.find(:url, 'http://google.com')
ie2 = Watir::IE.find(:url, 'http://www.port43whois.com/')
ie3 = Watir::IE.find(:url, 'http://yahoo.com')
