Why I Won’t Be Tagging Any More Posts for Links to Open in New Windows

Darren Rowse has an interesting post today which might seem at first glance a bit esoteric for anyone other than dedicated bloggers, but which raises some important issues about how pleasing or otherwise the experience is for readers of blogs.

As Darren observes, the question Should Links Open in a New Window? is “an oldie but a goodie”.

The issue is whether to arrange that, when someone clicks on a link, a new window will open (or, in some browsers, a new tab – essentially the same effect). The idea is that the reader is then less likely to leave your blog post and indeed your blog generally.

Evidently I need to get out more, because I had thought that was the smart thing to do and have in fact, on another blog which uses a different platform, spent a lot of time in the past actually coding in each and every link so that the linked page would open in a new window. In WordPress and in Windows Live Writer (which I am using right now to compose this post) there is the option to tag the link without having to actually hand-code it.

On the basis of Darren’s post and the majority of comments on it, some people obviously feel quite passionately opposed to this practice.

But it’s not just Darren and his readers.

A quick search showed me that, just under a year ago, Kevin O’Keefe at LexBlog had bagged the idea in his post Links should open in a new window? Want to bet? and drawn a bunch of comments even more severely opposed to the practice than those on Darren’s post. Kevin’s post referred back to his previous Best blogs send audience away which is worth reading for background to the subsequent post.

I’m always wary of people saying you must or must not do certain things with blogs or generally on the web and personally I don’t mind new windows opening, as they are very easy to close. But I am happy to acknowledge that what I was doing was:

• an old, now discredited approach to web design
• likely to annoy the blazes out of a lot of people

Time to change my ways. Suits me.

And my apologies to anyone I’ve unwittingly offended – some or all of whom I suppose left the building some time ago. If you were annoyed and are still here, my thanks to you for your patience.