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I’m a designer. And I’m also a user. As a designer, I generally have links open in the same window. For all the reasons sited above, as well as for accessibility. AND, because, as a user that is how I prefer the world to work. I generally use both Safari and Firefox. They have had tabbed browsing for years. All I have to do is press Command while clicking a link and it opens in a tab in the same window. I don’t really want dozens of windows open, thank you very much.

There should be no tricks to keep people on your site. They don’t work. And they only irritate the visitors.

Well written, Vitaly, and thanks for the mention in the resources.

I quickly realised, after the discussion on my blog post, that opening links in the same window was the most suitable method, and set about removing those target=”new” tags I’d previously coded.

Keep doing what you’re doing with the magazine.

Good article. I’m in the club of users who prefer to open new windows when I choose to.

Aside, here’s a generic version of your script and a teeny bit faster (given the reverse loop):

function linkopener(a) {
var b = a ? "_blank" : "_self", c = document.links, i = c.length;
while (i--) { if (c[i].href.indexOf(window.location.host) === -1) c[i].target = b; }

}

….or Sven (whoever pieced this one together). :)

I actually prefer links to open in a new window. I find that if they don’t and I don’t realise I then loose the original page too far back in my history to be bothered to return. I middle click on nearly all links now because I got fed up of it. Because of that, on my own site external links are target=”_blank”

I dig that JS code you’ve provided. I like that idea and am going to put it near the top of my site and have them decide what they want to do with the links. I’m tired of decided for them.

I’m strictly against to open pages in new windows …

it depends for me. if i’m navigating through the same site i don’t like it when i go to a different page it opens up in a new tab or window. but when i go to a site then have a link to a different site, such as here in smashing magazine, i’d rather have it open up on a new tab or window. why?? because if it’s a list of samples i’d like to be able to be able to click on the next link without having to press the back button. i’d rather find the original window or tab and quickly find which link i clicked last. sometimes when i have to click on the back button it automatically reloads from the top again and it’s very annoying if it’s a long list and the last link i clicked is somewhere in the middle.

As soon as you mention Jakob Nielsen a post becomes null and void.

I prefer open in new tab. So, I can continue to browse the current page. :)

Great Article!! I always want to know should I do new windows link or not. Now, I understand what should I do.

Just a note: I’ve been design for about a decade for the web – and really it’s not just about “tricks to keep people on your site” but about making it easier for them. As stated, who wants to hit ‘back’ several times to return to the originating content? Even if your website is ‘good enough’ I think you’ll lose a lot of the client base simply because people are too lazy to try and get back.

I know you’re what you’re saying. You say that users expect everything to stay in one window. But again – I disagree. I don’t know what users you know but those I work with all expect new windows for new web pages. Maybe it’s the people I’ve worked with, but really – that’s what they expected. For myself, I expect external links to load in a new page. Not that I’m the ’standard’ but that’s my preference.

Just because they’re used to it doesn’t mean it’s good practice. I remember mid-90s when all websites had crazy animated GIFs. Even on large corporate sites had the little animated email buttons and all this crap. Now a days we all say “a slew of animated GIF are distracting and unnecessary” but then it was expected by users to see those and everyone wanted it.

Just my thoughts. I guess it doesn’t matter one way or the other if I agree with the article, eh? hehe

heheh … just wanted to point something out that I thought was ironic.

Your ads on this site are all target=”_blank”

Meaning they open in new windows/tabs without the users choice .. hehe, sorry. I just thought it was funny in light of the article.

@Raul: A majority of web servers are not as net savvy as the rest of us. Command (or ctrl)+ click is unknown to these people. Even people who surf around some have no idea. So yeah, so those of use who make our living via the internet may know a lot of shortcuts and tricks but the average user may (and probably) do not.

I’m not strongly against links opening in a new window. It all depends on the context. Links in an article are sometime best opening in a new window so users can easily return to where they left off.

I don’t think the JavaScript technique works very well. I agree with Tom Sieron: users can’t be bothered to customise the behaviour of the page. If users know they want to open external links in a new tab they will do so in their own way.

Hmm not sure, any is better.

I hardly ever left click on links always middle click to open in tabs.

My girlfriend however opens everything in a new window.

where is my $ 5000 ???!!! no i joke, nice article ^^

I get irritated when I am reading a blog/site with a lot of links to external content and they don’t open in a new window. I dislike having to navigate back to the original site, especially when I am looking at a list of links (like “10 Best *whatever* resources”) and then every single link is a great site in itself with many more links I want to check out.

The people who are advocating so strongly against this practice say that users hate it. Where is your research data to back that up? What kind of audience are you talking about? Just saying “people don’t like it” over and over isn’t a compelling argument against it.

I am in the internal links=same window, external links= new window camp.

i still think all the links on smash mag should open in new windows …
its a pain in the butt to keep going back to smash mag from another site .

To the users posting about how having external links not opening in a new windows is irritating: learn how to use your browser. You can choose the target of the link when you click it.

Open plea to browser developers: Make it easier for those users to configure their browsers so that the rest of us don’t suffer from poor usability decisions designed to cater for their lack of control over their browsing experience. Consider making it a default option to open links which point to a different domain in a new tab. Then people who have the cognitive capacity to use more than one mouse button for opening links can turn this off and carry on choosing ourselves.

Just a small comment but the Sources and Resources of this article open into a new window. Could this be classed as trying to keep somebody on this site? It just seems to go against what is said in the article.

I personally have internal links in the same window and external links and other documents such as PDFs open into a new window.

@Victor: I believe that if you keep the existing timeline in the new browser window then the user would only become confused. If the user does not realise that a new window is opening then after a couple of hours browsing the amount of memory being used by open browsers would prob crash a slow machine. I would say that this would be less user friendly.

As a user, I never let the site decide for me. I am always choosing whether to open the next link in a new tab, new window or current one. I protect my current window’s back-track this way. When doing research, I can launch all the links I’m checking out into new tabs, and quickly scan and dispatch them, or let them become the start of a new search.

Anything a site does to force me into compliance is a turn-off and more than once has caused me to abandon a site immediately.

Interesting point, but as a user – I tend to disagree. I consume vast amounts of info and use many aggregators. I first scan for interesting headlines and links, and then force-open them in new tabs. I also do that when I read an interesting article. I open the external link for later browsing, or just to check it out and get back to the main article.

As a website visitor, I really don’t care if a link opens in a new tab/window, as I open all links in a new tab myself. The Firefox addon Tab Mix Plus also has an options to ignore the target attribute.

To me as a webdeveloper, an unwanted new window/tab seems less worse than losing a website because the linked website broke the back-button.

In the end, it all depends on the target audience. Smashing Magazine should let the user handle windows, AOL should decide for the user. Unexperienced users (like my parents) don’t know how to open a link in a new window or tab.

Whoa, quite the debate. Definitely don’t agree with this article. I don’t think most average web users know anything about the options they do/do not have for opening content in new windows or tabs. So in essence, you’re not giving them any more or less control at all. It then comes down to your preference as a developer and designer…and as a web designer who is also a normal reader of blogs, etc., I like to have off site content open in a new tab/window by default. It’s much easier for me, and it does the owner of the original site a favor by keeping their content open. In fact, I’ve gotten into the habit of right clicking and choosing to open anything in Smashing, etc. into a new tab just in case the “obvious” choice was not already coded in.

Great article. In the end you really have to think of the end user. Some of the comments about not catering toward the dumbest user does not make sense because aren’t you making the website for them? I don’t believe that would be a good decision to make a site just for the more advanced users, especially if you are trying to run a company. Even the dumbest user will pay money for a product.

Thank you for writing about this topic. I hate it went tabs open all over the place. I can do that myself!

i hate newwindow links…

new tab links are fine, i really would love if every link would open in the same window becouse so i can deside myself what i wonna do, if i klick it with left button i stay in the same window, if i click on it whit the mousewheel button (its realy handy if you got used to it) i get in the new tab. really love this…

window mangment is a task of the user not of the coder in 99% of the cases

I have to disagree with this article on a very large number of points. First, there is nothing wrong with opening links in a new window when appropriate. For instance, on my website, I make references to people I’ve worked for and such as part of in-line text. Now I open these in a new window because it is more user friendly. Why do I say that? Because as much as users hate new windows they hate leaving a site by accident more.

Of course there was the suggestion that the developer/designer provide a check-box to allow users to choose. However, this is almost as bad in terms of usability. When presented with a long list this is a viable option. But what about in-line links? Where would you put it? Up in the heading? You then are faced with two options, put it somewhere prominent where it will be seen but where it will distract users from other infinitely more important elements or put it somewhere a bit hidden where it will never be used.

Now, don’t misunderstand me; I’m not a major proponent of new-window links. Quite the contrary. I find them extremely annoying when they’re just randomly there. Sites that open all content in a new window, for instance, I leave those almost immediately. However, I get equally annoyed if I hit an in-line link and it throws me onto a new site.

Am I expected to know to open it in a new window on my own? Am I supposed to check the link to make sure it won’t do it for me? If the developer follows the XHTML Strict valid method as defined by the W3C then the link would actually be JavaScript powered so it wouldn’t be instantly clear that it opens in a new window.

So, I guess my point is they may not be ideal and they may be overused at times but they are most certainly not a “no-go” in every instance. And for the love of god can we cite some more contemporary experts? Avoid Neilsen. He stopped being relevant half a decade ago. Try Steve Krug, he at least follows his own advice and avoids buzz words to attempt to make it sound like he knows.

Great article – nice to see this subject discussed.

1) With the advent of tabbed browsing we have to be careful about terminology. New window vs. new tab I hate to have links open up in new windows, but as I do a lot of online research I love opening up each link in a new tab (which I do manually). I also group windows according to subject (sometimes).

2) Didn’t know about the middle button trick (I’m a Firefox user)- love it – no more right click for me.

3) I like #32’s comments: internal links – within window; external links – new window/tab as default design. But ultimately it should be under the control of the user.

Thanks!

I think what most people are missing here is one simple fact in web usability: Unless you are a high traffic site, 99% of your user’s time is spent on someone else’s website. So the best answer to this question is to look at high traffic sites (not search engines) and see what they do. For these purposes, an offsite link is any link that is not part of the original domain.

amazon.com: Links off site open in the same window
ebay.com: Links off site open in the same window
cnn.com: Links off site open in the same window
espn.com: Links off site open in the same window
theonion.com: Links off site open in the same window
newyorktimes.com: Links off site open in the same window (though some internal links open in new windows for some reason)

So we can see that, across the board, these sites do not force open a new window.

I think the fallacy here in the argument to open new windows on external links is that people are so interested in your site that they want to return, so to ensure that, you keep it open for them. Problems with that line of thought:

1. They aren’t really that interested. Users are task driven. Your site just happen to complete that task, which is probably how they found it in the first place. This leads us directly to…
2. If they happen feel that your site will help them in future tasks, they will take it upon themselves to be sure they can get back to it by bookmarking it.

Forcing users to open a new window does not guarantee that they will return to your site after their initial task is completed. I have observed this many time with non-computer-savvy family members. A site opens a new window to another site. The user keeps plugging away, usually oblivious to the fact that they are in a new window. When they complete their task, they close the window, and will usually close the original window that spawned the new window without a second thought, because they are finished with the computer.

What is boils down to is this: You should not be making the decision for your user if your site is worth coming back to…they should. Yes, this makes your job harder…you have to make it more visually appealing, structurally logical, and ensure that the content is worth coming back to. But if you invest your time in those things, you will find your user return rate significantly higher than just popping new windows.

Personally, I prefer every click to open in their own tab. I have my browser set up that way. I HATE clicking on something and having to use that stupid back button to find where I came from. On my site, clicks AWAY from my site open in new tabs and clicks within my site open in the same tab. New windows piss me off to high hell- I just close them, forget about the content. The only exception is if I have a personal window open and a work window open in which case, one of them is minimized for several hours at a time.

I also agree with not opening links in new windows, this is a choice the user should make (in most cases) not the designer/developer.

Guys,

Awesome article, especially considering I sent in an email to you a week or two back that complained a little bit about the fact that some of these more weighty pages were not marked up with taget-blanks and when navigating back to the SM article (especially before the article pages images were entirely loaded) would cause a pretty significant gap in time before the page auto-scrolled back down to where the initial click took place.

However, after reading this article, I can now see the light. The CTRL or Middle Mouse Button Clicks are more then appropriate and still preserve the User Experience.

Thanks,
JRodler
Fojoware.com

Internal links I allways have in the same window. External links I sometimes have in a new tab. Never in a new window if I can help it.

I’m with Sue on this … I open PDFs in a new window, and all links have a “(opens in new window)” warning in italics next to them. I don’t have a lot of them, though, and they are typicalyl clustered in a “library” area on the site.

Yeah, it looks like this article is getting mixed reviews, but really, it’s completely unfounded.

For starters, you have absolutely zero usability data backing this up, and you say as much. Citing that folks like Schneiderman and Mandel say users should be in control doesn’t suffice, because you don’t equate the problem of links opening in new windows to a lack of control. Nielsen is the only one that has a gripe targeted toward opening new windows, but you’ll notice that he doesn’t even comment on modern tabbed browsers, which have the same behavior but rein in the chaos of multiple windows.

Frankly, forcing windows to open in a new window may remove control from experts (like you, presumably), but not doing so removes controls from beginners who don’t rely heavily on context menus (there’s actually data to support that statement, btw).

Joel is exactly right – it is a pretty common convention these days to open external links in new windows. So common that I (personally) find I expect it for external links. I also expect help links in forms to open small pop-ups so they don’t disrupt my task (because I don’t want to risk my data getting erased if I navigate to a new page).

This article is another example of why absolute claims are rarely, if ever, correct. You should have focused on designing for good feedback for when links open in new windows, and using this convention sparingly – those parts were brilliant, and fully backed up by common design sense.

Instead you took a pet peeve of expert users (however common), assumed that every site is designed for experts, and presumed to say that the behavior is wrong without justification. That’s not the quality I’m used to on this site.

I am with Joel and Sam on this one – I have a 12 year experience, so I should be considered an expert, I think- and guess what? I like to have external links opened in new windows. That’s it. I want to keep track of what I am reading without having to use a back button, that is just the way I like to have it. I am even right-clicking links to open them in new windows because more and more the experts are doing it the way I DON’T like!!!!

I am not saying that they are WRONG, you see? I am totally for standards on the web, but I also believe in the relativity of things rather than dichotomies like “right/wrong, good/bad” and so on. Gotta be flexible sometimes. Absolutism, bléh.

@Joel (#67): you see you completely miss the point. You believe that designing sites for clients is more important than designing sites for users. It doesn’t matter what the client asks for; it’s your job to convince them of the best design solution. Maybe you should reconsider your design decisions since you seem to have the same opinion as 10 years ago.

Robnelp: you know how to use the middle-click to open links in new tabs? What I always do is just going through the post using middle-click to open links in new tabs and then close the Smashing article. And it wasn’t hard to figure that out :)

simple answer: No. It should be left up to the individual user.

Niki Brown

I’ve long been frustrated that Smashing links open in same window especially with the web-roundup style posts. Lots of rigth clicking and selecting new tab. However armed with the middle click my web browsing has now taken on a new lease of life!

Some novice PC user tend to have small monitors and only a basic grasp of the taskbar. My dad gets confused when a new window appears blocking out the old content. He isn’t used to having multiple windows open at once and application switching, so i can understand the argument for opening links in the same window.

I don’t really agree with the “offering the user a choice” thing since i don’t think most users know they have a choice. It would be interesting to know what percentage of users actually know how to open up a link in a new window.

P.S. Your sponsor ads open in a new windows :)

Great write-up, and thanks for including me in the sources!

Using a new window for help snippets is an interesting one. When the help links are on a form (Where I’ve been entering data), I always worry that the link will be in the current window and I’ll lose what I’ve typed. Because of that, I middle click the link. But if they’ve used javascript to make a pop-up, then that gives me an empty tab that I have to close, before clicking the link again. (e.g the PayPal website)

I’m not sure what the right solution to that would be. I agree that tool-tips are the ideal solution though, if the help content is small enough to fit.

I’m with Gopic (13.) on this one. Links to external sites as well as to .doc/.pdf would benefit from opening in a new window (external link icon notifier would be nice of course), due to the fact that a lot of users (from personal experience) are NOT expecting what all the “experts” claim they do.

I’ve seen dozens of users (not the super savvy 24/7 web surfing type) get confused and “lost” especially when following document links, which their favorite browser (yes .. i’m looking at you IE) brings to them in their browser window, rather than launching the application it should be opened with. This is especially a problem with documents slightly heavier than average and users on bad/slow connections. The don’t necessarily know what’s happening, then tend to forget it’s the same window and either close it and drop from the site they were just on or fail to use the back button.

Just personal experience over the last 9 years as I said, but it does happen quite frequently and as long as the user is made aware what’s going on, no dramas.

And for the “hardcore” crowd, a target=”_blank” hardly matters when we open almost every single link in a new tab anyway.

p.s. Jakob Nielsen … so overrated it’s not even funny anymore.

sigh…gizze

Not sure why you assumed I don’t know the multitude of ways to open a new tab or window.
I don’t believe I asked for tips..I was making a statement and offering an example, obviously there are options available user side and always have been…

nevermind..not worth the energy

I am just not sure if I agree.. I do think that in most cases open in new window is a bad thing.. but for link lists.. I think it really comes down to “would I want this to open in a new window as a web surfer?”

If the answer is yes.. and my usability testing does not pick up a problem with the new window links, they were an important part of the user interface..

to say users are not used to new window links is probably not true.. They did not pop up yesterday!

I know its not scientific in any way, but take from it what you will.

I just did a quick poll in my office. Out of 8 staff (who range from early 20’s to late 50’s and are medium to long term PC users, most with a PC at home) they all said they expected a link to an external site to open in a new window. Thats 8 from 8. External links not opening in a new window annoy the hell out of me.

I see also that some of you have used your parents as examples to support your arguments. Ive also seen mine make the same mistakes with getting lost with new windows for external links, BUT, they only made it once. To suggest or imply that they always get confused or lost is wrong. Who bangs their thumb with a hammer and then tunrs around and does it again. Live and learn.

I use the same rule internal links in the same window and 3rd party in a new window.
I’ve noticed lately that when I’m browsing I often right click on the link and make it open in a new window. Especially on really large pages that take a long time to load. If I don’t do it that way then I have to wait again for it to load when I click the back button.

I always have multiple browser windows open, overlapping (not completely maximized like most people seem to do, although probably at about 95% of screen size). Regardless of how the link is targeted, I open almost all links in either a new window or the 2nd window I have open (dragged from the first). It simplifies things SO much.. I don’t have to have a million windows open, but I still open things in “a new window” each time. Then I can browse the new site as much as I want, then when I’m done go back to the other window and continue on. (A perfect example of when this works really well is on one of Smashing’s showcase posts.)

So I guess it doesn’t matter a huge amount to me as a user, but I have pretty much always assumed most people prefer new links to open in a new window. I’ve been designing my sites to reflect that for probably 8-10 years. I have watched my mom have trouble with links that opened in a new window, but, though very intelligent, she’s just not that computer-savvy and doesn’t get a lot of other things either, like Photoshop basics or how to change her computer’s resolution, no matter how many times we try to teach her. Most people who don’t use computers every day are probably going to have more trouble; that doesn’t mean you have to cater to the lowest common denominator. These kind of people learned to adapt to email and cell phones.. they should be able to figure out how to close a browser window.

@Celeste: perfect example of how YOU like to browse. How do other people? We don’t know! There are millions of choices (browser window, screen size, …)

So let everybody make their decision how to browse – just like you did.

Ugh, that’s a lot of comments.

A very useful script – I’ve wondered what the best way to add that functionality was for a while.

I don’t agree with a few of the points though. The idea that all links should open in the same page annoys me – I think internal (same-site) links should open in the same window, but external (other-sites) should open in new windows. That way readers can confidently click on links on your pages, but still remain on the same site.

And as for non-html links opening in popup windows without browser controls? Removing browser controls, regardless of the page content, is a bad idea – who cares if the functionality is duplicated – Adobe Reader in a browser window, for example – consistancy should be key.

I have been surfing the net since Windows 95, I always open links in a new window so I do not lose my navigation.

If a site forbids be from for doing this, that is the LAST time I will be back that way!.

As a user, I want the website to do the trivial thinking for me – I want to external links in a new window without having to remember to hold down CTRL when I click.

If it doesn’t do this, I have to hit the back button (possibly find the link again, possibly retype some info, possibly pause music I don’t want to hear, etc.) and then CTRL-click. Major PITA.

I want to be in control, but I want sites I visit not to annoy the living bejeezus out of me because they’re too stupid (or over-clever) to stick to a well-known, well-founded convention like opening an external site in a new window.

Also, I strongly believe in giving users what they need, as opposed to what they think they want. The user who doesn’t like new windows will often be the same user who complains that they ‘lost’ a site they were browsing earlier.

Great article, I totally agree with you. Keep up writing posts like this one!

Nielsen is as overrated as it gets and nobody should ever pay any attention to him.

Open links in new windows/tabs? Sure do it. I do when I want or need to
Markup links to open in new windows/tabs? No, leave the visitor/user in control.

Take a Google for example. Google is a website, just a well-known one. None of their links are marked-up to force new windows/tabs onto visitors. Yet with a Google search result they link from their website to external websites (just more so than the a regular website). This works extremely well. And if a visitor does not want to keep hitting the back button to return to the search index, then they can use the browser to open an external site in a new window/tab.

Further reasoning:

All links point to a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).

A URI identifies a resource on the Internet.

Therefore keep it simple. Make no behavioural distinction between links to within a website or to an external website. Because both the website and an external website are the same; internet resources.

All the best
Dave

Agreed with Bongo…
Also, most of you guys say that we have to let users choose if they want to open links (external links i’m talking about) in a new tab but most of them wouldn’t know they could so in that logic you’re “forcing” them to open link in the same window…

I agree with you stoffb, to my surprise I also see those responses. But if we are here is for something, and the reason is simple: learn.

excellent article boys continue well.

Put me clearly in the “new window” group. I hate slamming the back button to get back to the material I was working on after following a link. And then so often I do get back and have to start at the top of the page instead of landing at the point on the page I left. I use internal for internal on my site and new windows for externals. Occasionally there are times when external opens in same window, but there is always a thought process involved.

In my opinion, I think that all links going to an external site should open in a new window! As a freelancer, and a designer, if someone is looking at my site, and wants to check out a resource I have linked, I don’t want them to have to back track to get to my site… it should just be there! ;) I also design a 15,000 page+ intranet information site and that’s the same philosophy we have!

I don’t want to direct someone away from my site

Well, then: simply do not link!

I totally disagree with the whole article. First of all, not everybody is a geek and are exactly “in control”. Second; same window for internal links and another window for external links so the users have clear they are leaving the web.

Good article. Of course opening in the same window should be the rule !

Now that said once in a while I always run into the case where, i think this list of links would so much more convenient to use if it opened in a separate tab or window. But until ‘how to open links in a new tab’ is taught in first grade and every user knows how to… I think we should notify on the page if links exceptionaly open into a different window, or notify on that particular page how to open links in a separate tab or window… users will appreciate learning something new.

For the love of all humanity. Please make your links(external sources) open in a new window. It drives me crazy when I click on a link and it takes me to another site within the same window. If I’m visiting a website, I’m there to gather information. 99% of the time when there is a link that references another site I just want to read about it real quick and get back to my original source. If I was forced into this site in the same window and I drilled down 10 times finding content, I would have to hit the back button 10 times just to get back. Is this post implying that is good UI design? That is ridiculous and so is the authors claim.

I disagree — the information and philosophy outlined in this article is outdated. Ever since the introduction of tabs, opening links (especially external links) in a new windows/tab is most common and quickly becoming the new trend.

I personally like external links to open in a new window/tab and internal links to stay on the same window/tab.

I also disagree (though I agree with points made by SDK). Why would a website owner encourage a user to go deeper into the rabbit hole …and forget where they started. In my case, I’ll begin on an “authoritative” site. If I leave it’s only to quickly check a source or two. The most important thing to me is getting back to the article or content that I was originally interested in. – C

I have a feeling I’m in the minority here, but I agree pretty strongly that links should generally NOT open in a new window.

Partly because a large part of our own user base are relative novices and they DO get confused about new windows and “broken” back buttons, especially if they run their browsers full screen and don’t realize that they’re in a new window. (Yes, it happens. Not as often as it used to, but still…)

And partly because, as a user, I really want to be the one to make the choice for myself. Sometimes I want to stay in the same window because I’m following a very linear trail. Sometimes I want to have a new, separate window so I can compare two pages side-by-side or keep an eye on a page that needs to load/refresh. Most frequently I open a new tab to reduce my window clutter (especially when I’m running searches and want to be able to follow several leads at once). Frankly, I don’t even know which pages I visit default to opening links in new windows because the shortcuts are automatic for me.

One of my personal usability guidelines I try to follow is: if it helps the novice and doesn’t hinder the expert, then do it. If it helps the expert and hinders the novice, think twice. Expert users are rarely hindered by minor details like this which can make a huge difference to novices.

Wow, this always seems to be an interesting topic.

Personally, I almost always open links in a new tab, unless I’m done with the current site and want the last link to open in the same tab.

I’m going to look into this for my own peace of mind.

I have to agree with Marie (comment #33). I love Smashing Magazine, but one of its more annoying design features is the fact that external links don’t open in a new window, especially given the fact that a vast majority of the content deals with and links to other websites. As a user, I don’t want to go through the hassle of right-clicking, but I also don’t want to be required to hit the back button 8,000 times before I’m back to Smashing. Perhaps the best, and most reasonable, solution would be for Smashing to provide a JS-based option to open external links in a new window.

Sorry I think if you are referring the user to another site you should open a new window. You assume a high level of user savvy if you think most people even know what the contextual menu is. I encounter levels of user stupidity that still blow me away on a daily basis. One high level exec honestly did not know how to copy and paste with shortcuts, so as a developer I go for the lowest common denominator and open in new window/tabs for the user and I think this is good practice. Just because I know how to right click or control click doesn’t mean they do.

You would think this would have been something browser vendors would have figured out and adapted to. A browser preference that opens links outside the current domain in a new window *if you want*, like Firefox’s ‘New pages should be opened in’ preference, would go a long way to putting the control back in the hands of the users where it belongs.

Judging from the comments and from personal experience I’d say the best practice is to indicate that the link refers to another site and let the user/browser decide to open it the way the user prefers it.

@MiSc

It’s not valid HTML strict either.

From Jakob Nielsen’s article (linked in the text):

2. PDF Files for Online Reading

Users hate coming across a PDF file while browsing, because it breaks their flow.

And the punchline: The second link (right above) the one to Nielsen’s article is a PDF. Too bad Smashing didn’t tell their users…

@Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz:
Top of the page shows ‘…in How-To | 170 Comments’
Bottom shows 151 comments…

19 got lost in scrolling?

; )

This article was friggin’ USELESS!

I find it frustrating and rather narrow minded that people use their own personal preferences and experiences to comment as to what is “right” or not. How about taking the subjectivity out of it and referring to someone who actually KNOWS. Eelco Herder did a PhD on this very topic. By definition a PhD is only approved if the researcher has been able to prove – beyond all reasonable doubt – that the theory they are putting forward is accurate.

His thesis (published 2006) suggested that if you want someone to read a page from an external site and then immediately return to the original site successfully, then it is best NOT to open it in a new browser window.

http://www.l3s.de/~herder/thesis/index.php

Personally, I believe if someone dedicates 3 years of his life to such a topic should be listened to, end of debate.

Good article !

I have an another solution for open links in new tab (or window) whit an unobtrusive way : http://www.webinventif.fr/accessibilite-laissez-le-visiteur-choisir-comment-il-va-ouvrir-un-lien/ (in french, sorry)

;)

See this is another ridiculous standards issue that designers shouldn’t be forced to do but rather use good judgment. With some sites, it’s okay to open in the same window, while other sites, I do not agree with opening another page in the same browser. Such as…

Take for example when I’m logged into my Wordpress admin section and I need to surf the plugin directory for a moment. I navigate to my Plugin section and find the “Get more plugins” link. The damn link I click goes to Wordpress’s Plugin Directory and completely disrespects the fact that I’m still logged in but now to get back I have to click our trusty little back button or be forced to just open a new window to get back into my logged session. IMO that is complete garbage behavior in the very reason why I disagree with this topic. For this reason, that link should open in a new window so I can refer to MY OTHER window that I’m logged in to.

Secondly, how about if I’m a client that doesn’t give a rip about standards and just hired somebody to make me a website and at the bottom of a website when the designer decides to have their “Created By:” link… oh but wait, it just opened in the same window my website I hired them to build for me is in, now my customers have to click back to continue looking at my site… See in opinion, that’s disrespectful to the website built for that client because the designer’s link for selfish reasons has just hijacked the website those customers were browsing without keeping it a separate entity.

So let’s say I’m logged on a website to pay my bill, but need to direct myself to the “Help” section because something doesn’t seem right, so I click “Help” right in the middle of having half my form filled out and “OH” low and behold it goes to another page in the same window! How am I supposed to reference to help or directions on what to do when I don’t even have the window accessible? Oh top of that, I click the back button after trying to memorize what the directions are telling me and OOPS, my half page of content has just reset itself.

This is why it’s complete arrogance to write such a topic as to why it’s a “bad” idea to open links in a separate window. Designers/developers, keep building the way you feel, but don’t make links open in the same window because you feel standards are forcing you how to do it a certain way.

Nice article to read about the other side of the fence. I guess if every site had to follow the rules set out by the above people, then it would matter.
Well what about the people who struggle to surf the net.??
Imagine a user looking at a Bike Shop website. This user is not too experienced and gets annoyed easily (like most baby boomers who have money). So he wants to check out one of the pro’s pages and clicks on an external link. Under this article, he should just click and go to that external site.
But wait he goes there and get lost.
Now he as to go back to google, because he forgets the URL, and type in the name of the site again.
Now tell me if I was the owner of that site, would I be happy a potential customer, whom might spend $8000 on a road, was mislead somewhere else.
I currently work on a very large site here at work. I use jquery for my external links to pop-up in new windows. The owners of the site requested it because they are the same demographic of people who use it

I think this article is another crappy point of view by people who expect the end user to know more than they do.

If you are going to put Javascript Source in your article then maybe it is time to learn about Jquery and get that inline javascript out of there.

Not impressed with this article.

Adam.

The sad thing is we as web designers created this mess ourselves. Once upon a time we all (yep, all) thought the right thing to do was to open external links in new windows, mistakenly taking over the control of the user. Everybody (yep, everybody) thought frames were great and thereby had to target every link to a specific frame or window. A reserved name “_blank” was invented to trigger a new window – just as the name “_self” would open a link within the specific frame – still doing that, but fortunately frames died out.

Target is not part of the Strict DOCTYPE, weather using HTML or XHTML, though still part of Transitional and Frameset – makes perfect sense, but along the road some forgot the actual purpose and that kind of led to the misconception that external links should open a new window.

In a sense opening a new window by targeting “_blank” is a hack and should be avoided, but we did in fact teach users what to expect ourselves.

@MiSc

anyone aware, that target=”_blank” isn’t valid XHTML 1.0 Strict?

Actually it’s just the target attribute that’s invalid, as the DOCTYPE you mention doesn’t support frames – the name “_blank” is irrelevant.

Back to my comment above. I took this topic and asked 4 different clients (35 – 40 plus). They all agreed that when they click a link that goes OFF SITE, they would rather see the page open in a new window. When the user is done they close the window (or whatever) they are still at the clients site.
These are old usability tricks but is that not the point. Keep them on the site longer.
People that think I am wrong. Ask your clients what they want.
It seems that people who understand how all this works forgets about the end users.

What do they want?
Do they want a new window to open up? Some do?

Here is some nice jquery:
//get the click to open popup
$(document).ready(function() {
$(’a[rel*=link]‘).click(function(){ window.open(this.href);
return false;
});
});

Enjoy

Wow – I didn’t know it was controversial until yesterday. I thought it was a convention to open external links in a new tab/window and internal links in the same. I’ll revisit this practice seeing as how high the emotions run about it.

I’ll bet this conversation represents a shift in the demographic of Internet users . If you polled us by age, would the ones who expect external links to open in new window be “older” and the ones who a re p.o.’d be it be the 20-somethings? I don’t expect users to be savvy enough to know how to right-click and select a new window, but of course you 20-somethings who grew up with computers take it for granted.

@Joel: A good designer will give the client what the client needs – which may well differ from what the client assumes that he/she wants. Spittle-licking obedience to an uninformed clients whims amounts to bad service. Get a backbone man – you’ll be surprised by how the entrepreneurial types like an upright man who faces them eye to eye.

Most of the discussion above becomes moot when you code for a company that falls under the full disclosure rules of the Sorbanes-Oxley act and whose website has to follow Section 508 to the letter. You’ll have the SEC, the CLU, and whoever else feels litigious during that particular week, up your pooper if a blind or otherwise handicapped investor’s screen-reader hickups on one of your jQuery pop-up links, and sends him into a dead end instead of to the quarterly report he came for. Won’t help you to point the finger at the CEO and whine: “You requested those pop-ups”.

The decison about the behaviour of links is not just about useabillity you see, it is also about accessability. Test your product in a screen-reader – and wear a blindfold while you do so. Can be a real eye-opener (pun intended).

Joel at #75 has the answer – modify the browser. Leave the site designers to code their preference. I got into mark-up by doing my work department’s Intranet pages, so I deliberately open new window/tab for external sites. It surprised me to find that Strict blocks the Blank attribute, so I’m still on Loose.

And on the subject of PDF files, I still find that my browsers crash out on them occasionally – that’s IE7 and FF2 on XP-SP2 – so just ditching a tab is far less inconvenient than losing all your current tabs.

My 2 rules for New Windows are:
1. Never open a new window if the user is not leaving your website.
2. If taking the user to an external website then a new window is fine.

When I learned to drive a car the headlight dip switch was on the floor. Had the Luddites been in charge the sensible repositioning to the steering column stalk cluster would never have happened. Things change, sometimes for the better: but check out AllMusic.com and enjoy the vile popup Nielsen is using to undertake his research–but hit the close button PDQ because it crashes some setups. Do as I say, not as I do. If the first browsers had opened links in new windows, would the web Luddites now be arguing that opening links in the same window was bad web design?

Thank you for the great article. I’d like to bring up the case where there is a link in the body of an html email. I that case I think that it should always be opened in a new window. I would go so far as to suggest that the email client should bring up a new window or tab by default.

I love the irony of an article about placing the user in control and clamping down on _blank while having incredibly intrusive advertising… let’s get things in perspective guys.

Re: “Place users in control”
>>> Of course this naturally presumes the user actually understands how to exercise control …
The ideas concerning the use of new windows in this article are opinions of experience, but not that of people who are inexperienced. Even after a few years use, I still open peoples eyes to the ‘back button’. I’m always amazed that people will supposedly ’see’ buttons but will not push them out some sort of fear or simply explain they never thought to try it.

Go ahead, build your site for ‘experienced’ internet users but you better keep in mind the simpletons. Build for them and you can truly say your site doesn’t cut anybody out.

[snip] … they just don’t know any different. I’ve met people who think that the blue “e” on their computer screen is “the internet”.

from http://andrewgatenby.com/why-do-people-still-use-older-web-browsers

i’m just a lowly blogger – but for what it’s worth I suspect that many of the opinions here are more to do with people defending how they have set up their respective link behaviours on their sites, rather than any real interest in the discussion at hand. And that’s human, but for my 2 cents it seems that
A. standardisation NOT regulation is a good thing
B. the amount of people who learn/know the middle button trick will grow exponentially (and yes, many people don’t yet know it), this in turn means that the only reasonable default behaviour is to leave links to open in the same window.
On my blog I tell people the middle button trick (1 in 10 might read it). But the real point here is about visitors using, rather than being used by, the sites they visit. It also pays to remember that we are all ignorant; just on different subjects eh?

It is this kind of disagreement that causes the internet to be so inconsistent with links in new windows. Opinions and preferences seem to split right down the middle. I’m afraid we’ll never see an end to this partisanship, which is a shame.

As a 12-year web developer and user, I’m firmly in the camp that prefers all linkage to stay in the same window, unless it’s a non-HTML page. If I want it to be in a new window, I’ll right-click/Ctrl-Click to do it. If every single site forced me to open a new window from an external link I’d be inundated with a multitude of different windows/tabs in minutes. Just think how novice users would feel. This excellent article soundly repeats what I have always believed from day 1.

As a compromise to clients, upon clicking an external link I always pop a disclaimer saying that ‘you are now leaving this site and we’re not responsible for the content beyond this point.’ No client of mine has ever insisted on the “new window” rule after I explain the reasons against it, and how I handle this scenario with disclaimers.

If you’d rather have links open in a new window, then there’s always an easy option for you to do so, explained in the article. For the other side who hate it, there is NO easy option to keep the link in the same window (unless you copy/paste or drag, which is not intuitive, since you’re never sure when you would have to do this because of the design choice).

I wish browsers had a checkbox option to “Keep all HTML links to one window/tab” cause I’d check that off in a heartbeat.

Again, like everyone else, it’s just my opinion, but one derived from my own experiences of user logic and expectancy.

Hi!
well, i create all ext. weblinks with a new browsertab. It’s fine and all my visitors can see the new page after post reading on my site.
Best Regards from “good old” Germany

As both a designer and a user, I have to agree with Tadd and Xavier and disagree with this article. The fact of the matter is that the designer usually has better knowledge of what is at the other end of a link than the user, who usually has never been there before. If I, as a user, always knew to what kind of page a link would take me, I would resent any help from the designer, but the fact of that matter is, as a user, I usually have no more information than a word or two of text as a clue what’s at the other end, and in that situation I appreciate the designer’s help making that decision. As someone else mentioned, I have never had a bad experience when a link to an external site, reference page, etc., opened in a new window, but I have had bad experiences where I clicked a link that didn’t open in a new window, only to see that even though it opened in the same window, it was not something I wanted opened in the same window. That situation requires going back and reloading the old page, which is a minor pain to a major pain, depending on how big the previous page was. As a user, I want to be in control, but I want to have the option to tell the designer, “You decide.”

Consider me in the bunch who likes to have internal links open within the parent frame, and external links open via a new window. I like to make it easy for visitors understand that concept by opening the new windows at a lower resolution (1024×768, I hope that is low enough these days…), and I nudge them down from the top so it is indeed a new window.

If someone is visiting my site and enjoys their time while there, I want him/her to be able to go back to it easily because opening an external link in the parent frame could lead him/her to totally forgetting about my site depending on what all is looked at from there.

That is my 02¢, and I am sticking to it!

Marie, well stated!

I have all my links on my FREELY hosted sites, like the ones on Angelfire.. open in a new window BECAUSE when I did not do this then Angelfire was always shutting down my site for using too much bandwidth… and trying to get me to up grade to a pay to use space. Opening to a new window solved the bandwidth consumption

I don’t agree totally with this article. I think it’s very depending on what type of web site you have.
Someone had gmail as an example. This is more a web application than a web site. And in web applications I think nobody complains if external links opens in new window. The same with other applications. If you, for example opens links in meebo.com in the same window (by dragging it to the address bar) your whole session expires and you are logged out. There are many other examples of similar applications so to say that “Open a link in a new window is always wrong” is not correct but quite old styled. It’s not the thing that people want the users to stay on their site, it’s a more user friendly design. Other types of applications are for example shopping sites.

For sites used only for finding other information, like search engines, it’s the opposite. especially in cases where people know what to search for. Those sites should definately open links in the same window since the web site itself does not contain any valuable information. Newspapers, “home pages” etc I think also should fall into this group of sites.

Then we have some types of sites that are in between. Forums, blogs, and similar. These are a bit more tricky. But personally I prefer that external links opens in new tab because going back can cause pages to reload and by this mark things as read or end up in a different place on the blog/forum.

I’m so surprised at the number of people who view web usage as a linear mental activity. I think that the metaphor underlying “first they go here then they go there” is the TV metaphor. It’s not appropriate for the web. The internet-enabled computer is supposedly a wonderful machine for replacing not just office paperwork but books, magazines, newspapers, television, radio, phone calls to businesses and the yellow pages that helps one find the phone number, right? When someone is reading physical materials to discover information, they most likely have more than one source in use at the same time, right? Consider paper-based travel planning: two or three magazines with appealing articles, a Frommer’s guide or two, yellow pages and a newspaper for travel agent listings, their mileage plan info and who knows what else. They are not engaged in linear activity here, they are dipping back and forth between resources. They do not get up and put the guidebook away in order to look at the pictures in Conde Nast, so why would anyone think that external links should replace the content someone is viewing? External links should open in a new browser or tab. Internal links are like flipping the magazine page: of course the content can be replaced in that instance.

I’m with Joel and the others who seem to recognize this. Sure, it’s useful to indicate that a link opens in a new window or tab, but other than that the site design should respect the mental activity that the user is actually engaged in, as well as the time the user spent to get to the point on the page which contained the external link. Let the user decide when they are done with the page.

User should be in control.

I’m amazed at all the folks who think all external links should automatically open in new windows.

I am not one of those folks who doesn’t want to have multiple windows open. I have 17 Firefox windows open at the moment. How do I get them open? I choose to open them in new windows. Been using Firefox since the early days, and have never taken to tabs. Folks thinking windows should open in new tabs automatically should be punched in the eye and left to flounder aimlessly on the whitespace they so love.

User should be in control.

If I want to open a link in the same window, I click the link.

If I want to open a link in a new window, I shift-click the link.

I have no doubt that I often shift-click links that would have opened in new windows. But I don’t notice that behavior.

What i do notice is when I simply click a link (to open it in current window) and it opens in a new window. It is bothersome.

So, the only time I even notice the code is when the new-window-cabal send me somewhere I don’t want to go.

I disagree. I visit many websites, graphics websites, seeing I am a designer. And I personally get very annoyed/think down on the site when links don’t open in new windows.