11–20 of 21 posts
I think using it is still appropriate when you know the user isn't intending to really leave the page they're on. For example, clicking on a help link (while filling out a screen) or anything else that would disrupt what the user's doing unintentionally.
I hate it when websites do this, because it overrides the expected behavior of the browser with the author's desires. People who want each link to open in a new tab/window know about Ctrl-Click or Right-Click+Open-in-new-window. They can do it themselves if they desire. For everyone else, this is rude, annoying, and breaks the back button.
Has Google ever done a study to see how many people know about opening a link in a new window/tab? They must have, right? Based on my experience it's very much less than half of normal people know how to do this.
Just skimmed the abstract, which says "We find that users switch tabs at least 57.4% of the time." but looking at Table 1, it seems like 64% of people do not open search results in new tabs/windows at all, so your initial guess is about correct.
I think using it is still appropriate when you know the user isn't intending to really leave the page they're on. For example, clicking on a help link (while filling out a screen) or anything else that would disrupt what the user's doing unintentionally.
I hate it when websites do this, because it overrides the expected behavior of the browser with the author's desires. People who want each link to open in a new tab/window know about Ctrl-Click or Right-Click+Open-in-new-window. They can do it themselves if they desire. For everyone else, this is rude, annoying, and breaks the back button.
Source? That's almost entirely untrue in my own experience (my audiences are quite large, quite varied, and not particularly ludite).
The only place I've used it in months is on Facebook iFrame applications where otherwise avoiding it would cause a larger page to load in a smaller area and get cut off.
As another poster mentioned, it would be good to mark as opening in a new window with an icon or text. When it's a small bit of information (like a couple paragraphs of help text), I always appreciate a modal window or tooltip first.
I hate it when websites do this, because it overrides the expected behavior of the browser with the author's desires. People who want each link to open in a new tab/window know about Ctrl-Click or Right-Click+Open-in-new-window. They can do it themselves if they desire. For everyone else, this is rude, annoying, and breaks the back button.
Has Google ever done a study to see how many people know about opening a link in a new window/tab? They must have, right? Based on my experience it's very much less than half of normal people know how to do this.
It's actually quite annoying that middle click doesn't bring up the link.
I hate it when websites do this, because it overrides the expected behavior of the browser with the author's desires. People who want each link to open in a new tab/window know about Ctrl-Click or Right-Click+Open-in-new-window. They can do it themselves if they desire. For everyone else, this is rude, annoying, and breaks the back button.
Has Google ever done a study to see how many people know about opening a link in a new window/tab? They must have, right? Based on my experience it's very much less than half of normal people know how to do this.
