Concerning links opening in another window

[Arcticulates]

Which is more comfortable for you?

• Clicking on links and having them open in the window you are using
• Clicking on links and having them open in another window.

If you have a second to explain why that would be wonderful!

I have heard several different reasons for the different choices. So I decided to take this poll!

[Michigal]

I feel it's a personal preference best left to the visitor to decide where these links should open. I get awfully p*ssed myself if something opens a new window. It's my choice, and it should be everyone's choice. I know how to open something up in a new tab if I want, and most people know the same. At the very least, everyone knows how to use a back button.

The nonsense about "keeping the visitor on your site" is just that, nonsense. They'll leave when they want, and you'll do nothing more than annoy them if you generate new windows for links. I've been on sites where EVERY link (including their internal ones) opened a new tab, and for that I say, Hasta La Vista, I'm not coming back to such a clueless site.

Oh, one thing, if it's a PDF file, I do set it to open in a new window, but I warn my visitors that it will. PDFs can be a little more confusing, and take longer to open than a page, so they can continue reading, surfing or whatever as it opens.

[Arcticulates]

Some people like me may just be "clueless" as you so aptly put it, thinking that they are doing a good thing. Most of my pages are all set up to open in another window because I thought that is the way it should be. I have changed some of the recent ones, but the others will have to wait till I have more time.

We all have to learn!

[QuirkyJessi]

I actually always open links into new tabs anyway, so it really makes no difference to me how people set them. Before that, I preferred them in new windows because by the time I got done browsing the new site that opened....I may have followed a link on that page, too, and then onto another.....so in the end, if I can just close those windows, I'm still taken back to the original place I started.

[sadiessay-so]

If I click on a link and it starts to open in the same window, I hit stop, back, then right click and hit "open in a new tab". I hate when it opens in the same window. Why would you drive traffic away from your blog? I always go into my html and add the target="_blank" feature when I can.

[QuirkyJessi]

Originally Posted by sadiessay-so

If I click on a link and it starts to open in the same window, I hit stop, back, then right click and hit "open in a new tab". I hate when it opens in the same window. Why would you drive traffic away from your blog? I always go into my html and add the target="_blank" feature when I can.

Do you use Firefox? I have mine set so that anything that is coded to open in a new window, is just forced into a new tab instead.

[sadiessay-so]

Originally Posted by QuirkyJessi

Do you use Firefox? I have mine set so that anything that is coded to open in a new window, is just forced into a new tab instead.

Yes - I'd love it to do it on it's own, but I can't find an add-on to do it. What are you using?

[QuirkyJessi]

Oh it's not an add-on! Just go to Tools and then down to Options. Under the section marked "Tabs," change it to "open new pages in tabs" instead of "in windows." Easy as that!

[sadiessay-so]

Oh, I have that clicked. I thought you meant when you clicked any link it opened in a new tab! I see what you're saying now. Hubby uses MyIE and any time he clicks on a link it opens a new tab. That's the only cool thing about that browser...

[QuirkyJessi]

Well you said that if it starts to open in a new window, you stop it, back up, and then make it open in a new tab. If you have that checked, there's no reason anything should ever be opening in a new window unless you manually tell it to...