Should Links Open in a New Window? Twitter Web Designers Voice In

Jan

Yesterday I asked the Twitterverse the question:

John Wang (jwang392)
Web Designers Question (for upcoming post. all responses will be featured)!: When should links open in a new window/tab?

Here are their responses:

Patrick McCoy (wootstudio)
@jwang392 When the user expects it or is warned about it before hand.

Chad Engle (chadengle)

@jwang392 If it link travels outside of the site. I hate new windows but love new tabs especially if I am not done with the previous content

Chad Engle (chadengle)

@jwang392 But I usually just apple click so I rarely make new windows…

@jwang392 links should open new window only when being taken to a completely diff site. So like opening a 3rd party from your banking site.

Brian Dote (dote)

@jwang392 Whenever the link is to an external resource that’s not in the same domain as the page the link appears on

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Egypt Urnash
Links should open in a new window whenever you want the end user to swear, close the window, and leave your site.

John Wang
I don't think I would go that far. I do find them annoying when they are part of the main website and not links to external websites. Though, in most cases I do just right-click and choose "open in new tab" option or CMD+Click.

I think most of the links that do that are informational links. Even so, I think they can be done better with Javascript or some other means that do not cause a new window. Especially those that force-resize your main window. That, I feel like is a much worse move.

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John Wang