New window or not?

[pne]

We were talking at work recently about the behaviour of external web links. A co-worker said that he expects that all site-internal web links open in the same window but that all site-external web links open in another window. I expect all links to open in the same window by default, since that gives users a choice: most browsers allow a user to select "open in this window" or "open in a new window". Forcing the link to open in a new window removes one of those choices since both options become equivalent.

My co-worker argued two things: (a) every click is a click too many: people are lazy so make the default action require as little as possible, and (b) the default action should be to open external links in a new window so that they can easily return to the site they just left -- since you want to try to keep them on your site as long as possible.

I'm not sure; after all, in theory "the customer is king" and you're supposed to serve him so the way to keep them on your site is to make the content easily accessible and interesting, not by browser gadgets such as popping up new windows.

What do you think? Should "exit links" open a new window or not? What do Internet users expect from clicking on a link?

Comments

[bride.livejournal.com]

I force everything to open in a new window and I write my anchor tags to force opening in a new window. I use Mozilla mostly, so I usually open in new tabs.

If I'm on an index page with a master list links, then I don't want to lose that page. I'll always right-click and open in a new window/tab.

I do the same with a slow site. You can never really tell if your site is going to be slow to someone else because of the network topology. Going back means having to re-load that previous page (although in IE, skipping back by pulling down the back button history list and picking one pulls up the cached page, but that causes it's own problems).

I usually open in a new window/tab, then when I'm done, I just close the window and the other page is still there. I hate waiting for re-loads more than I hate hitting ALT-F4 to close a window. Honestly, I really think people need to learn how to use the keyboard to be faster and more efficient. Poking and stabbing isn't the only navigation method available on a computer.

As someone who is always going against the grain, I always appreciate the choice and flexibility to do it my own way. I don't mind how the HTML author does links. I can still do my own thing, apply my own stylesheet so that it looks the way I want, with my colours, etc.

[pne.livejournal.com]

Opening pages in a new window makes sense to me. But giving people the choice sounds nicer :) That way, they can have a new tab, a new window, or the same window, depending on what they prefer. (Is it possible in Mozilla for the page author to force either a new tab or a new window with an appropriate link target, or only a new "something" and the user configures what it'll be?)

More power to web users who do things their way and don't have every single choice foisted on them by the page author.

Re:

[bride.livejournal.com]

Opening in a new tab is not possible in HTML... yet. A new tab is treated like a new window, but with the same Session ID, I think (which is why you avoid navigating interactive sites in multiple windows unless you know what's safe to do and what's not).

It's not a setting, it's a right-click and choose from the pop-up menu, just like IE.

I think there's a choice in Mozilla to "Open in Same Window". But I could be hallucinating...