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Re: Question about links opening in new tabs/windows

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From: Greg Gamble
Date: Dec 3, 2013 11:58AM

The reason I open a new tab for an offsite link is pretty simple. Consider this: You're on a site with a high level of complexity, you click a link to a similar site, but not the original. Now you're on someone else's site and if your following an article you could even click out to another site. Now ... where is that original page I was on?? Back buttons don't work on every site and there may have been some redirects in there that you're not aware of, so now you need to open the history page to see if you can find that original page.

Easier to open a separate tab and maintain the original site ... and yes it's 2013, but not everyone knows how to use a browser beyond clicking a link or using a back button.

JMO :-)


Greg


-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jared Smith
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2013 9:02 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: Re: [WebAIM] Question about links opening in new tabs/windows

Greg Gamble wrote:
> I'd think this would be the preferred way of handling links, especially for those concerned with web site marketing.

I disagree. If this were "the preferred way of handling links", all external links would automatically open in new tabs/windows and you'd have to program them not to.

Forcing new windows/tabs has consistently been in Jakob Nielsen's top mistakes lists since 1999:
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-mistakes-web-design/
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-top-ten-web-design-mistakes-of-1999/

If you're concerned about folks not knowing they are leaving your site (it is 2013, I think folks can tell sites apart these days and they know how to use the Back button), I think a better approach is to use an icon indicator to designate external links and give the user the option of opening the link in a new window rather than forcing this upon them.

Some other resources:
http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2008/07/01/should-links-open-in-new-windows/
http://www.webcredible.co.uk/user-friendly-resources/web-usability/new-browser-windows.shtml
https://managewp.com/should-you-open-links-in-new-windows

Jared