It just seems like good marketing to me

[Clarrie]

I was getting a site review over in the site review section when the topic of opening new windows came up. I have a couple links at the bottom of my page that open in new windows and some members felt it was wrong to do so.

Sites that link out to other sites and do not open in new windows is a problem for me. I spend a lot of time reading blogs and most blogs link out to other sources. I will click on a link to see what it says and that blog will link to another blog and before you know it I'm 4 blogs away from where I started.

Now I start hitting the back button to find my first blog but I have to wait for each site to reload or I finish reading and forget about the other blogs and close the window. I have lost information on more than one occasions because of this. But it seems that most of the good blogs do not open links in other windows.

Is there a reason for this?

I come from a marketing background in retail. Golden Rule - NEVER send a customer out of your shop. Same applies online. Every visitor is a customer or potential customer, whatever goods or service you provide. If you link to an external site, do it in a new window. Five clicks down the line and your "customer" is not going to go back, back, back, back, back to get to you.

If you open a new window, they can get back to you easily, wherever they go in the meantime.

[incrediblehelp]

I was getting a site review over in the site review section when the topic of opening new windows came up. I have a couple links at the bottom of my page that open in new windows and some members felt it was wrong to do so.

Sites that link out to other sites and do not open in new windows is a problem for me. I spend a lot of time reading blogs and most blogs link out to other sources. I will click on a link to see what it says and that blog will link to another blog and before you know it I'm 4 blogs away from where I started.

Now I start hitting the back button to find my first blog but I have to wait for each site to reload or I finish reading and forget about the other blogs and close the window. I have lost information on more than one occasions because of this. But it seems that most of the good blogs do not open links in other windows.

Is there a reason for this?

I use tab browsing. I NEVER click to open a new window or within the same browser so it makes no difference to me.

[coa]

And how many average users know that they can right click and open in a new window?

Indeed!

And is that right-click... or left-click :)

Open the new window for links outside your site. Make it as easy as possible for people to get back to your site.

I 100% agree - usability issues seriously considered, but rejected in this case. When people end up 5 or 10 pages away from MY material, how useful is that BACK button?

In fact, we should be TRAINING people to open off-site links in a new window. IMHO it makes "surfing" easier to manage as a user.

Just a thought... don't include any off-site links at all! Ooops... sorry that's not the nature of the web, is it :)

The ONLY warning I would make would be to NOT open an off-site link in a FRAMED window... that could get you into potential legal trouble for passing off others content as your own...

[murphypj]

janeth wrote:
I was getting a site review over in the site review section when the topic of opening new windows came up. I have a couple links at the bottom of my page that open in new windows and some members felt it was wrong to do so.


Janeth, I'm with you on this one. Almost all of my end-tier internal links, and all of my external links open in a new window.

The experienced web user will have no problem with either allowing this, or right-clicking and selecting 'open in new tab' for FF and IE7. For the newbie, it can be more confusing to click as you describe, and end up half-a-dozen clicks away from the resource they really wanted to check out.

While the proliferation of webpages may confuse the new browser, it is easier to close an unwanted page than to try to reverse navigate to the page which initially attracted the interest. The experienced browser may well want to compare the merits of the various pages which have loaded ( in my case I deliver guitar transcriptions, but also link to other sites which may have a better version than my own ).

Basically, I believe this approach says 'Check out my content, here are some alternatives - if you find what you want out there, that's great, if not, cancel those windows and hopefully I can still help you when you return to my website.

Off-topic Janeth, but I'd love to know how your MySpace experience is progressing??

PJ

[okparrothead]

Hi Forum, Hi Janeth,

My two cents.

I'm with The Dinghus and Janeth on this one. I want my site available through more than just a back button. Even if a user goes off on a tangent, I've done it, the original search lead them to my site, which I think is an important fact. On the other hand, I also want the links accessible to all. So I use the technique described here:

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/sta...ompliant-world

Links built using this technique will open in new tabs, or new windows, and still be XHTML 1.0 Strict compliant. If JavaScript is turned off, the links still work, but don't open in new windows. I can live with that. I consider this the best of both worlds.

Peace

[JohneeMac]

On my site i open links in new tab / window if

1.) Portfolio links

2.) External links

I use the progressive enhancement method from Site Point mentioned above.