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Forcing links to open in new windows: an argument that should have ended

marco.org

11–20 of 85 posts

Re: Forcing links to open in new windows: an argument that should have ended

#11
post #2

Tapping and holding for 2 seconds and then choosing "Open in a new tab" every time you want to open a link in a new tab in iOS gets tiring fast. I wish Apple would introduce a better UI for this.

Cool idea!

What would be the input paradigm? Two finger tap?

Re: Forcing links to open in new windows: an argument that should have ended

#13
post #3

IMHO, there should always have existed only one single type of link: a link. The user should be able to choose to open it in this window, a new tab, or a new window. Browser allow you to open a normal link in new tab or new window, but unfortunately I don't know any web browser that allows the user to force opening a link in the current tab :(

Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/959136

Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/open-in-this-tab/n...

Re: Forcing links to open in new windows: an argument that should have ended

#16
post #14
post #2

Tapping and holding for 2 seconds and then choosing "Open in a new tab" every time you want to open a link in a new tab in iOS gets tiring fast. I wish Apple would introduce a better UI for this.

[deleted]

iOS not OS X.

Re: Forcing links to open in new windows: an argument that should have ended

#17
post #6

I'm glad he clarified that. For non tech-savvy users who are using an application, I think `target="_blank"` is a really helpful way to avoid "I've lost my work!" support emails. Auto-saving their work is helpful too. I've stood over my mother's shoulder too many times when she closes a tab and says "where did that last window go?" to agree with the blanket statement of "target blank is Bad".

But he didn't make a blanket statement of "target _blank is bad". He agrees with you.

> I believe the former is justifiable, the latter isn’t

As he said in the article, it's justifiable if the user is in the middle of an important session that they probably don't want to navigate away from. For most people, reading a news article doesn't constitute that.

Re: Forcing links to open in new windows: an argument that should have ended

#20

I completely disagree. In fact I find it worse when a link opens in the same tab and then I have to navigate back and find the place that I was at .vs. having to close a new tab I did not want. "And I think over a decade of user confusion and frustration resulting from target="_blank" backs that up." Do you have any links to to back this claim?

Anecdotal evidence to combat anecdotal evidence, but where do we stop and let the user make some damn decisions? Are users really too stupid to know ctrl+click, middle click, or right click->open in new tab?

Personally I side with the author, as I open just about everything with middle click, but I also have a lot of dumb users that rely on target _blank like it's the only thing preventing them from spiraling into a psychosis filled chasm of self doubt. The sheer number of people who have marveled at the idea of opening a page in a new tab when shown kind of makes me uncomfortable.

I really want to fix this, and have users understand their browser more than "it makes the googles".

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