To open a new window or not? 5 reasons to re-consider this web technique

At the newspaper site I work for (ajc.com), our style is to open external links in a new window. It’s a pretty standard web convention. Yahoo! mail and Hotmail.com do it. Most newspaper sites do it. Heck, I’ve even done it on my own site.

But based on accessibility standards and my own experience as a user, I wonder if opening new windows for external links causes more problems and confusion than it prevents.

Traditional Internet wisdom holds that opening external links in a new window does three things:

1. It keeps users from leaving your site entirely. Your site remains just a closed window away.
2. It keeps users from losing their place. Again: close the new window and there you are.
3. It underlines the point that this site is not controlled or maintained by your organization, and that the user is no longer on your site.

I think it’s time, however, that we re-evaluate this convention of opening new windows for external links. Here are five reasons to reconsider.

1. Opening new windows sacks user choice. I often visit web sites while doing other tasks, having several windows open at any time. More than once, I have closed the original browser window (or another application) because my browser would hang trying to open a new one. Rather than keeping a user on your site, opening a new window could cause the opposite effect.
2. Opening new windows can confuse users. New Internet users aren’t aware of every Internet trick. Opening a new window can cause confusion, especially when browser interface items are rendered useless (discussed in point three), or old windows “disappear” under the new one. Even experienced users might not immediately realize that a new window was opened at first.
3. A third reason not to open new windows: it often kills the back button. And as usability expert Jakob Neilsen says, breaking the back button is the easiest way to cut the user’s lifeline, leading to frustration and confusion. Instead of keeping a user’s place (which is better kept by the user’s mind and his or her browser history), opening new windows can disorient.
4. Four, new windows can cause accessibility problems. Many screen readers can’t handle new windows, or don’t handle them well. And related to the above point: what if the user has a cognitive disability? Imagine his/her frustration at trying to figure out why the other window has disappeared. Mark Pilgrim makes this point at DiveIntoAccessibility.org.
5. Finally, opening new windows is not valid XHTML code*. As of HTML 4.01, the target attribute has been deprecated.

*To clarify point 5: The target attribute is still valid in HTML 3.2. It is not a valid XHTML attribute. It is a deprecated attribute in HTML 4.01.

It is also possible to open new windows using valid, standard code. But doing so violates World Wide Web Consortium accessibility guidelines. The W3C mailing list archives discusses this topic in greater detail.

Internet users — even newbies — in my opinion, are now savvy enough to know when they are visiting an external site. Cuing users about where a link will go, however, is a good practice.

There are threefour fairly unintrusive ways to do it.

1. Use language and context. Tell users that they are about to visit another site in the sentence. For example: “Read more about accessibility from the World Wide Web Consortium web site.”
2. Use CSS classes. Create separate styles for internal and external links. For example, internal links might be red: (a.internal{color:#ff0000;}) while external links are green (a.external{color:#006600;}). Or you can make internal links underlined while external links have a border. Something to consider with color cues: they mean little or nothing to people who can’t see them; as much as 10 percent of men have some degree of colorblindness (WebAIM discusses pitfalls of color use).
3. Use the title attribute of the <a> element to tell users where the link will take them. When a user mouses over the link, he or she will get a little blurb of text explaining where the link goes. For example:

   <a href="http://linkto" title="Link goes nowhere">

   produces:

   Fake link

   Mouse over the above link to see an example.

Another solution is to offer an “Open external links in new windows” feature.

The advantages of offering this option are twofold.

1. It gives users a choice.
2. It saves users a step. They won’t need to copy and paste the U R I or right-click their mouse to open a new window.

Adrian Holovaty does a good job of this on his site. Don’t forget to use the <label for=""> element and attribute around the text for your check box.

Conclusion

Instead of controlling the user’s experience, let the user decide whether (s)he wants to use another window for an external site. Why risk alienating your user when there are other ways to distinguish external links?