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Posted by +mrcakey on 12/07/07 09:46
dorayme wrote:
> In article <5rq5nfF15vrs9U1@mid.individual.net>,
> Harlan Messinger <hmessinger.removethis@comcast.net> wrote:
>
>> Pritam Barhate wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> This question has been vexing me from quite some time now. When one
>>> links to the resources outside his/her website should the
>>> target="_blank" attribute be used for the <a> tag?
>>>
>>> Normally I use target="_blank" for anything that is outside my
>>> website. But this question bothers me even more when I am creating a
>>> list of resources. Since, while viewing these lists user will be more
>>> interested in the resources than my website.
>>>
>>> Recently I came across the following opinion a lot times:
>>>
>>> If the user wants to come back to your site he has the back button and
>>> also he can use the "Open in new window" option if he wants the linked
>>> resource to open in new window.
>> Exactly. And this is much more suitable than leaving a user who's being
>> browsing from site to site to site to finished up his session only to
>> discover that he now has a dozen windows to close because each site's
>> designer thought he needed to see the next site in a new window.
>
> Take me for example. I get pissed off. If I want to keep track of
> things and have your site up easy to get to and others to compare
> material etc I just Command key click and a link opens in a new
> tab (Windows users would have their own ways). Do it often.
>
> If you do not leave it to the user you are deliberately making it
> more difficult to be rid of your site, a user who wants to leave
> your site and go a link must do two things instead of one. He
> must click and then find yours and click the close.
>
This has done the rounds quite a lot and the very clear consensus is
that using target="_blank" is a BAD THING. One thing that anyone who's
browsed the web for any length of time will be familiar with is leaving
a site, getting engrossed in the new one and losing interest in the
first. Particularly for casual browsing.
I think, if you HAVE to link to an outside site and you still want your
users to come back then this is one time using frames is acceptable:
link to a page within your own site that contains a narrow "navigation"
frame to take you back to the calling page, and a main frame filled by
the external site.
+mrcakey
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