Say, bloggers, here’s a thought:
You know that little checkbox on your Blogger or Typepad or whatever template that says, “Open all links in a new window”?
Uncheck it.
I just went to a blog that won’t let you so much as go to the main page of the blog without opening up a new window. I will never return to that blog.
The only time you see that here is when Snoopy posts. I figure you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Or, once in a while, I’ll have a link open in its own window. But overall, I expect my readers to be able to figure out how to get back here on their own (the back button, or right-click menu, I would imagine).
But to have your own main page open in a new window? Comments, too?
Uncheck. The. Box.
Actually, it is quite wrong – I mean that new tricks part. I have only relatively recently started to open new windows. Going back is cumbersome, while just shutting a window down and back to the point where you are is much more attractive. Well, it is a matter of taste, I say.
Yes, it is, which is why I let my co-bloggers choose.
But it isn’t a matter of taste to have your entire blog linked in a new window each time you click. It’s a matter of not getting this whole linking thing. I mean, come on—the HOME PAGE opens in a new window?
A lot of browsers will open a new tab when you click a link (at least Firefox, which I use does). I like the feature myself, because I can open a link that’s in the middle of a post and finish reading the post instead of hunting for the link after I finish. I guess it’s a matter of taste more than anything else.
The only exception I have is I prefer popup comments, I find on the sites that take you to a new page I tend not to read the other stuff I haven’t read yet. Or to not leave a comment I intended to leave because I never make my way back there.
Otherwise I do have a button for just the purpose of opening a new window or tab if I so choose.
Actually, opening links in a new window is one of the cardinal sins of web design. The back button is the one thing that all users understand, and you break that trust at your peril.
Don’t take my word for it. Ask a usability expert.
Meryl – to avoid it, Get Firefox, and change the settings. You can force all links to open up in tabs within the window you’re in, or even within the tab you’re in.
What Ezzie sez.
Snoopy said:
Going back is cumbersome, while just shutting a window down …
Amen!
Meryl I use your links to other bloggers and if I have to log in to comment with Typepad, for example, I cannot just “go back one page” to get back to your site Is this a trick perhaps to get me to click on bookmarks again? :-)
Seriously it makes life much easier for the aged, the infirm, the tired and the huddled masses trying to get some worthwhile reading done.
I also suggest, for those who prefer opening links in new windows, to try using shift-click on the link. That’ll open the link in a new window. That’s what I do when I don’t want to navigate away from the page I’m reading just to peek at a different page.
Similarly, Ctrl-click will open a link in a new tab in Firefox.
That’s entirely Typepad, Cynic. Blame their scripts, not me. When you click on a link in my navbars, you go to that link. It’s pure html, no scripts, for me.
Ezzie, I’m too pissed off at the author of that blog to ever go back.
I have Firefox. I haven’t changed it to open in new tabs because I don’t want that many tabs open, either.
I make a note of bloggers that are secure enough to let me leave their blog on my own, and those that have issues. ;-)
I have a checkbox at the top of my blog that lets you choose whether to open in new windows. I tend to read by opening several tabs and reading each tab, one at a time. But if many people feel like you do, maybe they find having new windows be default annoying, so I defaulted it to not open in new windows now.
Meryl,
I’m just giving an example and not blaming you.
Just trying to point out that opening a link in another tab or window helps.
Anyway when I comment here it would be easier if the comment window opened in a new tab or window, (Haloscan makes things easier; but then again trying to get back from a link in a comment kills the comment window/tab in most cases)
which saves all that backing up to read the rest of your posts.
I don’t like perusing all the posts first and then commenting cause I tend lose my train of thought.
Yeh! I know it’s my fault that age doesn’t permit me to keep up with the gamers.
Read that a little old lady was fined for crossing the road too slowly. Will it be long before one will have to satisfy a “point and click” speed test to use the net? :-)
I kind of like popup comments better, and argued with my designer over whether or not to use them. He ultimately convinced me otherwise.
Why wouldn’t you read a post, click on comments if you want to comment, then hit the back button to continue reading the next post? It seems utterly natural to me.
Of course, half the time I stop midway through the comment and say, “Why are you bothering?” because I often want to get in the middle of a really stupid debate. But then I stop myself.
Life’s too short.
I do but it is usually two hits to get back past the comment already posted.
Yikes, it’s not me, is it?
It’s funny, I didn’t even know you’d posted this, and I was just complaining about it in response to your comment at my blog.
Oh man, I really, REALLY hope it isn’t me.
Pop-up comments *are* better. I have to go back 2-3 pages just to get back, which is annoying, on blogs that go to comments pages. It also sometimes reloads the entire original page, which is also annoying. I’d rather scroll and pop out a comments window on occasion.
But I hear you on the tabs (though I don’t mind having a million).