Saturday, July 14, 2007

Opening Links in a New Window—Yes or No?

Here's an interesting post from Swank Web Style on why links shouldn't be opened in new windows. What's your take?

7 comments:

The Bookworm said...

I had never thought about it, but they are probably right. I have to be chief techie for my almost 80 year old mother, who would most likely be hugely confused by two (or worse, several) "internets" opening up at once. Also the point about those who understand more and want separate windows being able to do it easily is good. For myself, I prefer opening a new tab in Firefox ;).

Amy said...

He has a lot of good points. I still like my links to open in a new window. :) 1. I am too lazy to remember to *right click* and do it myself. 2. I have like 3 regular blog readers, and YES, I would like to keep them on my site, lol!! Call me selfish, call me insecure, you'd be right! ;-)

Personally, I also prefer when things open in a new window when I'm surfing because my internet loads slowly, and I can continue reading the original article/post while the other window loads. If I wait until I'm done with the original article, I don't go back as often and click on links.

love2learnmom said...

I've always preferred to have links open in the same windows so I can use the *back* button to my hearts content. :)

KC said...

I prefer to have links open in a new window because I like to click on the link and then continue to read the rest of what I'm reading.

AMY T said...

I 100% agree. Creating links that open in the same window is a design choice that shows you trust users to know when they are ready to go somewhere else. And this practice also trusts that we know how to come back. That's exactly the kind of control I like to have over my online experiences. Even Explorer has tabs, nowadays, which are a super efficient way to open multiple pages without being "kicked" to a new window. Speaking as a user, not a designer, I like to be trusted with as much control as possible.

Alice Gunther said...

LOL, when I went to read the Swank article, it did not open into a new window. When I was ready to come back, I could not back space and needed to go through a three step process of finding "Moms Who Blog" again, looking for the post, and coming to this comment box. It would have been a lot easier for me if it had opened into a new window leaving me at my place here!

When I am blog reading, I like staying at a person's blog as an anchor and following links in a new window. It is just easier for me.

Unknown said...

First of all I dont know how to do that. lol second it does make sense. Point well taken.