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Posted by John Dunlop on 05/14/06 20:43
Chung Leong:
> It's a common practice for government sites. The idea is that people
> need to know they will no longer be looking at official information.
The idea sounds fine to me, and I would even extend it further than
government webpages. I would have *all* links as clear as possible, so
that the relationship between the current page and the linked-to one is
obvious. (Unless there is some reason to obscure that relationship;
none spring to mind.)
I would still take issue with the setting up of a middle page to
achieve that end though, but from a user's perspective I can't offer
much in the way of argument other than my own opinion that it would be
a nuisance being presented with an 'are you sure?' (said in a Mrs Doyle
from /Father Ted/ voice) each time I followed an external link.
Besides, external links can be set apart in other ways. For example,
the title attribute of the link (e.g., title="EXTERNAL LINK: ... "),
the rel attr. (e.g., rel="external", with a suitable Profile), the
surrounding text (e.g., explain in the prose what the link is), and the
style of the link (e.g., an image after every external link). Those
can be combined to make the relationship between the two pages more
explicit.
> There is also a security dimension. Such a page helps ensure that
> you're not leaking sensitive information through the HTTP referrer
> field.
Good call, hadn't thought of that. RFC2616 mentions it.
I think we would need to distinguish intra- from internet then.
--
Jock
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