

Ask HN: target="_blank" thoughts? - holdupadam

I'm marking up a page right now, have a list of Twitter users to link to and am debating the use of target="_blank" without an explicit "new tab/window" icon.<p>I personally have no use for this anymore. If I am browsing a webpage and I want the link to open in a new tab I will do it myself, otherwise I expect it to open in the same tab.<p>How do others feel about this?
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nostrademons
I hate it when websites do this, because it overrides the expected behavior of
the browser with the author's desires. People who want each link to open in a
new tab/window know about Ctrl-Click or Right-Click+Open-in-new-window. They
can do it themselves if they desire. For everyone else, this is rude,
annoying, and breaks the back button.

~~~
staunch
Has Google ever done a study to see how many people know about opening a link
in a new window/tab?

They must have, right?

Based on my experience it's very much less than half of normal people know how
to do this.

~~~
flowersmoker
I googled this for a bit, and while Google did not do a study on opening links
in new tabs/windows, it seems like the University of Washington and Microsoft
did: <http://jeffhuang.com/Final_ParallelBrowsing_HT10.pdf>

Just skimmed the abstract, which says "We find that users switch tabs at least
57.4% of the time." but looking at Table 1, it seems like 64% of people do not
open search results in new tabs/windows at all, so your initial guess is about
correct.

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plasma
I think using it is still appropriate when you know the user isn't intending
to really leave the page they're on.

For example, clicking on a help link (while filling out a screen) or anything
else that would disrupt what the user's doing unintentionally.

~~~
jenniart
I agree. I think sometimes it's okay when you're sure that the user wouldn't
want to browse away from the page they are on... such as when filling out a
form or maybe even watching a tutorial video. Otherwise, I think it should be
left up to the user.

Personally I tend to use it for links like "follow us on twitter" because I'm
hoping that they will keep both tabs open. However the comments here are
making me wonder if that's too forceful.

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JohanE
If you're using target="_blank", you should let the user know that a new
tab/window will open. Probably use a symbol like this:
[http://code.google.com/apis/checkout/developer/files/OpenInN...](http://code.google.com/apis/checkout/developer/files/OpenInNewWindow14x14.png)

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proexploit
Use it only when you need a new tab/window to open and nowhere else. You don't
want to try and make a user's life easier by guessing if they'd open a new
tab, because some won't want to.

The only place I've used it in months is on Facebook iFrame applications where
otherwise avoiding it would cause a larger page to load in a smaller area and
get cut off.

As another poster mentioned, it would be good to mark as opening in a new
window with an icon or text. When it's a small bit of information (like a
couple paragraphs of help text), I always appreciate a modal window or tooltip
first.

~~~
Omni5cience
"The only place I've used it in months is on Facebook iFrame applications
where otherwise avoiding it would cause a larger page to load in a smaller
area and get cut off."

Which would be the "target" attribute's intended purpose, frames that is.

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pkamb
There's a long-standing Chrome bug where middle-clicking target="NAMED" links
opens them in a new tab in the _foreground_ , not the background as is
expected. So annoying.

<http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=62319>

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rocktronica
I understand the sentiment and don't use it on personal sites. For apps,
though, I don't quite have the confidence that my users will know to open
external links in new tabs.

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cstrouse
It's fine I guess for external links but it really bugs me when people use it
for links to other pages on their own site.

