Standards

To _blank or Not To _blank, That is the Question

There is an ongoing debate in the web design world about opening external links in a new browser window or not. Some would argue that opening an external link in a new window is a smarter move due to the fact that your webpage is still open and has not been highjacked by this freshly clicked link. Others might rebut that a new window is no better than placing popup ads on your homepage. Both raise very valid points.

Speaking of valid, we all know that target=”blank” is not a valid XHTML 1.0 attribute of the anchor tag. Atleast by Strict Standards,and we all only adhere to strict standards, right? So, this raises a point about the whole new window topic. If you can’t open a link in a new window using web standards compliant code, then is it really all that necessary? Granted it does validate under a Transitional dtd, but the only work around for a Strict dtd I have seen is to use Javascript in an onclick event.

It seems to me that all this hassle extra code isn’t exactly worth that extra thirty seconds the user is on my site for. Maybe it really isn’t such a big deal to allow external links to open in the same window. Especially with browsers rendering so quickly and bandwidth soaring to new levels these days, what is wrong with having the user click that perfectly placed back button. Besides, if the user really wants that link in a new window (or tab) they’ll open it there themselves. I’ll be leaving the browser spam up to the client from now on.

4 Responses to “To _blank or Not To _blank, That is the Question”

1. tim_c@n't_r3id says:

   October 6, 2005 at 7:59 pm

   As we discussed earlier, I’m with you on the target=_blank" thing. Is it really that hard to hold down the COMMAND key when you click a link? I do it all the time, and don’t really find it to be that huge of an annoyance. No more new windows/tabs for me.

   Reply
2. tim_c@n't_r3id says:

   October 6, 2005 at 8:00 pm

   Make that target=_"blank" — sorry…

   Reply
3. tim_c@n't_r3id says:

   October 6, 2005 at 8:03 pm

   JEEZUS KRIST!
   target="_blank"
   My name is Tim, and I’m a web developer. (As if…)

   Reply
4. j3ph says:

   October 6, 2005 at 8:07 pm

   …i think this is considered comment spam. But yes, I say leave it up to the user.

   Reply