sorry alex. But everything you have said here is not true. I know plenty of occassions that i have used this functionality and it is desirable lots of times. Regardless of how tech i happen to be. I still want it and use it myself. Also. I know from discussions with my brothespt blank and other people that they hate it when clicking an external link redirects their main browser

target blank doesnt break anything. Its a orde took that lots of people use legitimately

chris

ps. Your website is broke. Two parts of its functionality dont work on mobile browsers
the author url (try chris-alex-thomas.com) and the text area fails to scroll properly

firstly. Target blank will never EVER be removed. Nor stop working. So that doesnt matter.

Secondly. Nobody listens to jacob neilson anymore. Its 2009 and he still hasnt made enough money convincing everyone to write websites with only text and some colours. Why anyone should start now is beyond me

thirdly. I guess you like to work with a single web browser open. But i dont and having multiple pages open is a godsend. Especially when working from my phone. Loading up the previous page AGAIN BECAUSE it didnt open a new window is very annoying
.

Frivilously. Using the net takes a level of ability to use and its the way it should be unless you want to reduce ever to the lowest form of complexity. You will be asking that websites limit the number of search results they display next because its confusing. My point is that at some time you stop pulling down and start pulling up

for me. Target blank is past that point

(i am partly joking partly serious)

i know your intention. But i think its misguided

I disagree with this post, partly because I use my Iphone frequently while on the road and I really hate going back instead of closing the current window to find my original page still available, either way you choose to go I don't see what the big deal is... and I don;t see it going away, where can this info be found, I googled it and nothing, p.s. Goggled should be a word defined in the dictionary...

Admittedly, I don't like the back button either, so I usually use ctrl+click to open a new page/tab. However, I wouldn't know how to open a page in a new tab/window on Opera Mini, on my mobile phone, and it does bother me often, when I clicked through ten pages already, that I have to go back ten times (thankfully it caches a lot, so the pages don't have to reload all the times).

However (and this is the BIG however), webdesigners/developers should just stop using the target=_blank attribute, for the mere cause that it will make users use it as a habit, if used on a major site. And when that habit fails on them elsewhere, people are confused again (and as everyone knows, users can be way easily confused, just think about your mother or another family member, there's bound to be some one who needs an explanation on everything, and who see their computer as an illogical beast that can only be tamed by using the exact same sequence of commands to accomplish the job they worked very long on to memorize). So easiest way to keep users unconfused is stick to only one way: either use it everytime on an external link, or don't, and let the user do it themselves actively, so they know they open a new page. Personally, I believe in the second option.

On the subject of Jacob Nielsen, I think you have to use his thoughts more as a guideline than as a rule (like the pirate code). Aesthetics are pleasing, and serve a purpose, but usability is just very very important as well. (And I thought I saw Jacob's ideas in your post, already :) )

Also target=_blank is deprecated because it only belongs with framesets (together with _top, _parent, etc.), and framesets require a different doctype, which I believe is no longer being worked on (I don't know if it actually is discontinued).

I can't imagine not using the target attribute. I hate having to use the back button whether in the browser field or a javascript button. Target makes it easy, I'm a web surfer who has 15 tabs and likes it that way.

I've asked and most of those who voted in my poll have said they preferred it.

I think everyone is missing the point. If you force the new window on everyone, then those that don't like it don't get a choice. If you force the 'same window' on everyone, those that don't like it do have a choice.

I use multiple tabs and windows a lot in my work. But I don't want them forced on me. I work as a web editor so am a very experienced user but still occasionally get caught out when you simply haven't noticed that the link opened in a new window - and get confused when 'back' doesn't work! That does annoy me.

The author of this post is rather snarky and ignorant. He must be exclusively a Mac user. With mobile phones, especially android and iphone, it is a pain in the ass to use the back button because the browser has to redraw the page. if you have a new window, and want to navigate back to the page, its much nicer to open a new window. as a web designer of almost 10 years, I can tell you that through all of the feedback I've ever gotten, people generally dislike using a single window/tab and so the target="_blank" is the way to do it. For someone like myself who has at least 2 available monitors, I prefer having the ability to see both pages at the same time, especially when shopping for something... viewing the manufacturer's site on one side (opened from the store's site in the other, which makes for a better web experience).

Go drink some kool-aid dude, cuz you obviously are a one platform user.

Not sure where this author is coming from, but there are plenty of good reasons to use the new window/tab as opposed.

I don't know how relevant the previous comment is, saying the author "must be exclusively a Mac user" - why must he? And so what? Stick to the point about target="_blank" and usability.

Also, the point that was something along the lines of "I like two windows because I have two monitors and I use them when shopping" is once again missing the point. No one has said you're not allowed two windows - we're only saying that it should be the choice of the user, not the website.

If you like things in a new window, go ahead and open a new window. Or right click your links first and choose "open in new window" or hold CTRL/APPLE before clicking them. That's fine. But the users that don't want things to open in a new window wouldn't have a choice. The fact that it is depreciated, and that it breaks the back button are also major factors not to open links in new windows.

Actually, I can think of one place where it would be totally valid to use target="_blank": when I am typing in my credit card details, if there is a little help icon that is clickable, I would want a small pop-up window to open, definately not navigate me to a new page. But I can't think of many more scenarios where it is actually useful.

Yeah, I disagree with this post too. A usability issue like this from the late 90's is kind of moot in the modern day. Opening new windows back in the 90's might have been annoying from an "I have to manage all of these new windows" position, but with the advent and proliferation of tab functionality, it's actually turned out to be a pretty convenient way of organizing navigation history.

The problem that comes up with the "back button" functionality is that it provides a linear history that can be easily written over.

Supposing within the space of an hour you visit 5 different websites, all within one tab. You decide to go back to the first website by using your "back button." After browsing that site for another hour you want to revisit the fourth website you visited. But what's this? The forward button won't bring you there anymore, and neither will the back button. You would have to actually search through your browser's history to find the other 3 sites you visited.

Now what's the difference if each site simply opened a new window when the user navigated to another site? Well, for a user, your browser only changes in the number of tabs ~ there's no longer any confusing physical interruption of a brand-spanking new window like it used to be in the 90's. You would instead have 5 tabs opened, each of which compartmentalizes the browsing history for each site ~ an arguably improved organizational setup for re-navigating the sites you've already visited.

And at what cost? Well, that the user has 5 tabs open. And to that I say, "so what?" If the user didn't want to continue surfing on the previous site, it's no harm done. Their browsing experience wasn't interrupted, and they're only a few clicks away from closing any offending tabs. If anything, the convenience that's introduced by the newly opened tabs far outweighs the "cost" of a few additional tabs being opened.

From a navigation standpoint, having completely different websites open in different windows is improved organization. It relegates the division between site browsing history into a better and simpler functional organization (new website=new tab). For the typical user (or most anyone for that matter), it's significantly easier to think "each tab represents a different website", than "this tab represents multiple websites in its navigation history."

I think I speak for the other detractors of this post when I say that the target=blank functionality is hardly ever an annoyance, at least in the modern day when used to indicate a new site is being visited ~ if anything, when used to help define a conceptual, organizational difference between websites, it enhances navigation, not detracts from it. If users ought to be 'smart enough' to open tabs on their own (which we should grant is not always the case), they're also smart enough to close the old tab/window if they were really finished browsing that site.

I will, however, grant the two valid points presented in this article: that target=blank is deprecated and therefore ought to be discontinued, and that websites should not control client-side functionality. In a way I think both of these points are intertwined ~ that target=blank was deprecated in part because it controlled client-side functionality (although probably more in part to the phasing out of frames). I think, though, that the convenience provided by target=blank to the user and to the sites themselves outweighs the staunch principles in this case.

I'm a techie that's been doing web development since I was a kid, and eventually got my B.S. degree in Comp. Sci., and worked in the Web industry since.

mm .. any one here cares to know that Target is No Longer a deprecated attribute in HTML 5
w3schools
w3.org
opera
.. I'm a graphic and web graphics designer and just wanted to say that thinking that target kills usability means one thing ... the author knows Nothing about usability

I am making a decision whether to get continue using target=blank throughout my website or to discontinue it throughout the site. I should say I ended up reading all the above after googling for some opinions on what people in the usability world think.

All your squabbling over it has been great reading actually, and has taught me more than other articles I've read!

I should point out I am not at all a teccie or web designer but manage a business which takes all sales through a web site. I have therefore had to learn enough to at least fiddle here and there or tell our developers what to do and when (or discuss with them). Of course budgets dictate that only the more serious development warrants external specialists, meaning other stuff I and my team have to figure out.

One thing I should point out is that most people have no idea how to open new windows by the way from a link. Really. Open a window to start browsing afresh, yes, but open a new window from a link using ctlr or other functions is only something a very tiny proportion of people know about. I think the perceptions from all of you on what users can do or can't do is a bit skewed. However, someone made a great point about whether you go forward assuming everyone is ignorant or if you push up and force people to learn and deveop their user skils to get with the times.

I will be keeping my hundreds of target='s. I've now decided this for sure after reading all the above. Mainly because of the navigational reasons as the back button is a nightmare if you want to back and forth - all too often it doesnt let you go forward or your half way through a booking and something messes up and it doesnt remember you.

Furthermore, I should have said... I use target=blank to open up new links WITHIN my site, but the link is from our booking engine (which is also used for our affiliates as an I frame). Therefore affiliate parnters using our booking engine I frame would lose their branding which made them choose our i frame as opposed to a clean traceable link.

If anyone can give me a good enough 'new' reason not to, then please respond! I'll be getting to work next week on linking a whole new load of target= from our booking engine. Always to other pages within our site, but always whereby the user would need that information at their point in booking process.

Cheers!

Adding on to the above post. The page I'm linking to from all of my target= links is actually full of information tables... this page doesn't conform well to the size of the i-frame that affiliates use. Thus forcing me to use a target= really.

I've just done some tests, and actually the back button doesn't wreak havock as much as i'd thought for our site. I'm still sat on the fence on that one though being personally someone who is happy to have lots of tabs open (forced on me or not).

If our booking engine wasn't used on so many other sites through restricted size frames, I maybe would consider it all further, but for now alas am stuck.

If money grew on trees then Id get rid of the frames and start from zero on lots of points, with your principles in mind, but small businesses with small margins don't have too much choice all the time.

Point and Case: The user must be given the final choice!

I don't know that target="_blank" kills usability... but the user should have a choice, regardless.

If you have an internal booking system, intranet, cms, or any other type of private system... feel free to use target="_blank" where you see fit.

DIV popups should be used for small info windows and internal "popups", IMHO.

For those of you who like multiple windows... then open multiple windows from the link. If you don't know how to do it, then take 5 seconds and learn how.

Nice post! thanks for sharing...

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