links in mail body

[Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net>]

Hi,

I'm deeply confused about the way that links within email/news bodies
are treated. It seems to me that links behave differently depending on
whether the mail is plain text or HTML, and possibly whether it is a
mail or news item? I swear I have opened two apparently equivalent
mails, and in one links open in w3m, while in the other they open in
Chrome, my system default. Additionally, links seem to behave
differently depending on whether I put point on them and hit return, or
whether I click on them with the mouse.

I notice that, when point is on a link, I get a new "Link" menu on the
menu bar, which contains various helpful commands. Only "copy to kill
ring" is bound to a key ('u'): presumably I could bind "Open in an
external browser" to a key, provided that I knew the actual name of the
command -- but I don't. Where is that menu defined? I don't even know if
it is part of Gnus or Message.

All I want is: I open a mail or a news item, hit 'h' to enter the body,
tab to the link I want, and then hit 'return' to send that link to
Chrome. That's all. It wouldn't even have to be return, it could be
anything. If there was an alternate key to open the link in w3m that
would be a bonus, but not at all necessary. What do I do?!

My browse-url-generic-program is set to "google-chrome", otherwise I
haven't customized anything.

I am: Ubuntu, Emacs 23.1.1, Gnus v5.13.

Help!
Eric