Opening links in “new” windows
Many will consider another post on this topic as ‘flogging a dead horse’. This is not quite true as it seems as if this bad habit (my opinion), is just growing in popularity.
Just this morning I was Stumbling looking for some interesting content, when I noticed that most external links on the sites I visited, open in new windows. Why, oh why, is this happening?
This is something that I have discussed with many people and to date I have not heard any acceptable reason(s) why this way of opening links is so prevalent.
What do the web accessibility standards have to say about this? This is plain and straightforward, the standards tell us that if new windows are used the user has to be warned about this fact. This is however not the only standard that is being flaunted if you do things this way. The standards also tell us that no deprecated markup should be used. To open links in new windows you have to use the target attribute and this is deprecated in XHTML.
But I want to keep visitors on my site! This is an excuse I often hear. All I can say to this is, BULL. If you want to keep visitors on your site you need to offer them good meaningful content. If your content is not good enough, nothing on this earth (including new windows) will keep anyone on your site.
When we started learning how to surf the Net, one of the first things we learnt was how to use the back button. If you open links in new windows you remove this important functionality from the browser. Opening new windows resets the back button on that window and there is no history of previous pages to return to even if one wanted to.
When I click a link on a page I expect that link to open in the current window. This will then allow me to use the back button to return to the page I have just come from. If you have to use new windows why don’t you then just warn the user of this fact. I for one, will then know not to click that particular link.
Enough of my personal opinions. Have you ever thought of the visually impaired folks who might be using your pages? Can you imagine how confusing these new windows all over the place must be to them?
If I, or any user for that matter, wants to open a link in a new window, I know that the browsers have this capability built in, all I have to do is to right-click that link. Why take this choice away from me? Why make my decisions for me?
If you feel that it is your right to make this kind of decision on my behalf, warn me about this upon entering your site. I will then know not to click your links and I will know of yet another site that I will most probably not be re-visiting in the future.
I realize this sounds very harsh but the time has come for the truth to be told in an honest and truthful way. You are making things difficult for so many others by opening links in new windows, so why do it?
These posts might be related:
- “New Windows” are still with us
- Guidelines to cater for visually impaired users
- Do it yourself accessibility
- Just where are we with regards to standards?
- Are the accessibility standards cast in stone?
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Accessibility. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Hi, my name is Lyndi. Here we talk about all things related to WordPress. You are more than welcome to join in the discussion.
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My thoughts are it is simply up to the publisher which ever method he or she feels works better for their own audience. Since mine is kind of a resource blog, it make sense to open links in new windows not mainly for keeping my visitors but more of convenience to them.
Touching on what you wrote:
“Opening new windows resets the back button on that window and there is no history of previous pages to return to even if one wanted to.”
The previous browsing history is still kept on the original site actually. Also since Google place importance of quality outbound links in order for us to rank better, bloggers tend to do so such as what I have done here. This is especially so for let say Make Money Online or Graphic Design blogs where they often highlight other authoritative sites such as Adobe or other similar blogs.
Last but not least, I can’t imagine my blog articles to look like the one above don’t you agree?
Overall a great post Sailor and something personal blogs should adhere to. Cheers!
Daryl
The thought lingering in my mind.
If the user wishes to click the link, it’s because they feel they’re going to find the answer to their question. If the user decided to click on a link which would lead them away from your website, it could mean:
1. Your website doesn’t have what they’re looking for.
2. They feel the answer is in another location and try to find it there.
But yeah, a warning you’re leaving the original site would be good. However, I wouldn’t use the Javascript warning dialog though.
And I’ve seen some people go to the extent of building a hovering bar on other websites if you navigate away from the original.
In the end, you’re right. If they navigate away, it’s their choice and your puzzle to figure out why.
Daryl, you make valid points. I still feel that the user should just be warned. That way the user still gets to make the decision. At the end of the day that is the most important thing I think. Nice comment.
Danny, you said it better than I could. I forgot about those Javascript warning things, I would also stay away from those. Thanks for dropping in.