Open Links in New windows - No thanks!

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This debate has gone on out there amongst web developers and user interface designers for some time. There are various issues that crop up when discussing this, but, generally, we should leave the user to control how links open but allowing then to use their browser as they prefer.

furthermore...

The main areas of concern are these:

The basic way (from early days of HTML) to get links to open in new windows is by using an attribute for the link thus: 'target="_blank"'.

The target attribute is now deprecated under later versions of HTML and XHTML (what we now use instead of plain HTML). There is a way round this that involves javascript, but it does make it difficult for use within content management systems, because we need to dynamically change the target attribute into javascript. Still, it is possible ...

The other issue is more usability based and here there are differing views and we sometimes need to convince clients to 'do the right thing'.

To a certain extent all of this depends on how people tend to have their computer desktops arranged and how their browser opens, but mostly (I think), people are browsing the web with their browser application occupying the whole desktop. Consequently, when they click a link to another page or site, then a new window covers the parent window ---- the back button is greyed out and the user needs to know that to get back to the previous site, they need to close this window. This does confuse some people and often they will get back to the earlier site by starting over in that window, thus have more than one instance of the site open. So, the idea that opening a link in a new window, keeps the user on the parent site, is wrong, because, in fact, they are now viewing a new window hiding the parent site from view. I agree, that for more experienced users who have the browser application running in a 'less than' full screen, this may not happen.

Most modern browsers have a TAB interface, allowing users to open links in new tabs. The web designer cannot force windows to open in new tabs, even with javascript, so using the link in new window, breaks this possible option for the user.

Here is what Jacob Nielsen says about this issue:

"A link should be a simple hypertext reference that replaces the current page with new content. Users hate unwarranted pop-up windows. When they want the destination to appear in a new page, they can use their browser's "open in new window" command -- assuming, of course, that the link is not a piece of code that interferes with the browser's standard behavior."

Posted on 22 Sep around 9am

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