Feb27
External Links: New Windows or Not
- posted by: George
- 2 comments
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In the spirit of my post about the HOME button, I’ve also decided to take on the question of linking visitors from site A –> B. It’s my honest belief that a website shouldn’t trap the user by tossing all external links into a new browser window. To my surprise when I posted this question question to the LinkedIN community an overwhelming number of comments were in favor of popping up new windows for any links which take the user outside of the main site.
I believe I can break web users into two major groups;
Shorties – Those who are savvy and understand how to use shortcuts.
Mousers – Those who rely only on left-mouse clicks and are still learning how to use the right mouse button.
I don’t believe we should cater to the Mousers. There is a browser back button for a reason; to return you to the page you were just on. I’m not buying the bullshit argument that users will click on a link and forget how to get back to your site. I do however think that when you force new windows upon the user you run a greater risk of the user closing your site, in which case they lose the ability to click BACK.
Let’s just agree to keep it consistent and stop the madness of new browser windows UNLESS the user willingly right-clicks or opens them in a new tab…..by choice.


I’m a firm believer that Twitter has both a follow & tweet threshold which after crossed starts to diminish the effectiveness of the service. I believe it’s impossible for a user to adequately follow 300 plus Twitterers. If follows are posting a minimum of 4 tweets per day, that is over 1200 messages in one 24 hour period, far too many to create social dialog. 



On a daily basis I spend anywhere from five minutes to three hours cursing and wishing ill will upon Microsoft Internet Explorer 6. Sometimes I do this silently under my breath and sometimes, to the dismay of my coworkers, I do it quite vocally. The reason? Internet Explorer 6 is an: insecure, slow, outdated, and non-standards compliant browser.