Comments on: Why You Should Avoid Forcing New Windows https://www.webmaster-source.com/2008/10/19/why-you-should-avoid-forcing-new-windows/ Useful Resources For Webmasters Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:53:00 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.42 By: Joel Drapper https://www.webmaster-source.com/2008/10/19/why-you-should-avoid-forcing-new-windows/#comment-3523 Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:08:37 +0000 http://www.webmaster-source.com/?p=927#comment-3523 Maybe you are right. I almost always open links with the ctrl key down to open them in a new tab, but when I don’t, I want them to load in the same one.

]]> By: Matt https://www.webmaster-source.com/2008/10/19/why-you-should-avoid-forcing-new-windows/#comment-3517 Sun, 19 Oct 2008 21:47:46 +0000 http://www.webmaster-source.com/?p=927#comment-3517 Don’t apoligize for long rants. It’s good content. :D

“The fear is that youo’ll follow an external link and leave their site.
Big news flash – left anyway. Don’t try to keep visitors to a website
prisoner. Let go. If you have good relevant useful content then they’ll
be back organically.”

I totally agree with that. It’s the overall message I was trying to convey with my post. I also agree with your PDF theory. I don’t like having them open in the same tab as other content (especially if I want to go back to the other page). I often don’t see them coming and don’t middle-click them to open them in a new tab.

But if I do middle-click, I want it to work, which they don’t with 80% of JavaScript links. Systems based on the rel=”” attribute generally work good though.

]]> By: Steven Clark https://www.webmaster-source.com/2008/10/19/why-you-should-avoid-forcing-new-windows/#comment-3516 Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:30:22 +0000 http://www.webmaster-source.com/?p=927#comment-3516 The only time I would recommend opening a new window would be for PDF (but maybe you’re right about games, I’d have to think that one over). If a new window is opened its always good to notify the user it’s going ot happen and provide them all the chrome.But, other than PDF, it’s a bad user experience and has been on the 10 worst web design mistake lists over and over for the last 9 years. Who want’s to do sucky work right? But target=_blank is so easy people don’t want to let them go.Roger Johansson has an unobtrusive javascript (and there are others no doubt) that use techniques like putting rel=”external” onto links you want to open in popups, or using a class=”external” or class=”pdf”. At least then you have a bit more control. The fallback being that those without JavaScript don’t get the popup, but no errors and they’d not really be impacted by it.As a user, personally, I really really hate popup windows – government sites seem to be huge offenders. The fear is that youo’ll follow an external link and leave their site. Big news flash – left anyway. Don’t try to keep visitors to a website prisoner. Let go. If you have good relevant useful content then they’ll be back organically.Apologies for the long rant.

]]>