Serfaksan — Sat, 17 Jun 2006 02:14:04 +0000

well for me is anoying to have another window open, but I think they should open certain links in tabs

bob23 — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 01:55:58 +0000

for a link leaving your site then I'd say us a new window but for pages on your site dont.

JeevesBond — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:19:57 +0000

Megan wrote: I sort of think that browsers should offer a bit more of a tutorial for new users on things like this.

Now that's an idea! After all AOL became so big by being "user friendly." Perhaps you should try suggesting that to Opera in a manner that might get you a job.

Megan — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 12:44:54 +0000

I sort of think that browsers should offer a bit more of a tutorial for new users on things like this. They start up with a search engine or portal and never show the user how to use the product. Opera, and maybe Firefox too, have some instructions for users switching from IE but nothing on the basics.

demonhale — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 02:33:53 +0000

I think having an informational campaign for those that dont know there are different options for opening a site... But use the old way that visitors are accustomed to, basically sites with IT stuff or web mastering and such attract visitors that are fairly knowledgable with window controls, so no need to make links behave in any way, they are in control. But for generic sites where major visitors come from all walks of life, then make a link that they are used to already, they are more comfortable that way...

JeevesBond — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 13:12:46 +0000

DaveyBoy wrote: I vote that you don't fix it at all please

Well, fair enough.
Maybe we'll have a poll on it when/if we have time to consider the problem!

DaveyBoy — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 12:33:35 +0000

I vote that you don't fix it at all please

JeevesBond — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 12:16:50 +0000

Abhishek Reddy wrote: The point is you shouldn't pre-determine the user's choices when browsing. As a user, I find it frustrating when I am not sure exactly how a link is going to behave. So it's best that you stick with the default convention, as a designer.

Absolutely agreed.

Without being too presumptuous I would say there are more people out there who know how to open a new window by themselves. Helping people that don't know how to use the Web properly is a good thing, but not when it imposes arbitrary behaviour on the rest of us.

So my vote is a definite "no" to new windows. I'll admit that the new window opening on this forum does annoy me, haven't attempted to change that behaviour because - as Megan pointed out - there are far worse things a site can do. We have a long list of more important stuff that needs to be dealt with.

ablaye — Tue, 06 Jun 2006 02:48:51 +0000

For ads (banners and text links), it is preferable to have the link open to a new window. You don't want to your visitors to leave your website whenever they click on an ad. It also not good for your user web browsing experience if when he clicks on an ad, he has to go back and find where he was before he clicked on the ad.

antispyware — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:04:56 +0000

i prefer links to external sites opening in new windows. if i dont like them i can close them and return to previous site easily.
if it doesnt open in new window, and we visit many pages of another site and then wish to comeback to the old site, then we may have to hit the back button many times. that will surely be an inconvenience.
instead we can simply close new windows and come back to the old site.