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Setting target=_blank is almost always a bad idea anyway. Typically marketers ask for it to prevent users from leaving your domain when clicking a link to an ex

Setting target=_blank is almost always a bad idea anyway. Typically marketers ask for it to prevent users from leaving your domain when clicking a link to an external domain; the thinking being they will remain on our site longer if we force a new window on them. Testing has shown that this doesn't work in practice, and instead achieves the opposite: the user in confused as to why they are in a new window, and it's harder for them to return to your domain. The user is confused by the ostensible "pop-up" (that they associate with ads) that has opened, and the Back button no longer returns them to our domain, breaking with their expected behavior. Users know how to open links in new tabs/windows if they want to. In testing at the places I've worked target=_blank only hurts conversions. Personally I run a plugin that strips it from all links.

dazc 9y ago
'Testing has shown that this doesn't work in practice....' Is there any research you can point me to about this? '...and the Back button no longer returns them to our domain, breaking with their expected behavior.' Yeah, except when the target site has disabled it and then you have even more confusion. (Accepted it is rare, but it does happen).
- SippinLean 9y ago
  I was referencing internal A/B testing results for several high-volume e-commerce sites I've worked on. An oft-parroted best practice in UX is "effective user interface places users in control of the application." This study seems to agree: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-enduring/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-enduring/ >Many of our study participants moved to a new site or subsite without realizing it and then struggled to get back to the main site because the subsite offered no option for return Using target=_blank ensures the Back button is broken. A third-party site disabling the Back button is out of your control.
  - dazc 9y ago
    Thanks for the further information.
kccqzy 9y ago
In my experience, users who know the Back button exists are already one step ahead. Some users don’t know Back/Forward buttons at all. When they open a link that replaces their current page, they have no idea how to go back; they close this tab, open a new one, uses Google to search for the original page and hope to find it. Furthermore actual pop-up windows are associated with ads but a new tab? Not so much.

dazc 9y ago

'Testing has shown that this doesn't work in practice....' Is there any research you can point me to about this? '...and the Back button no longer returns them to our domain, breaking with their expected behavior.' Yeah, except when the target site has disabled it and then you have even more confusion. (Accepted it is rare, but it does happen).

SippinLean 9y ago
I was referencing internal A/B testing results for several high-volume e-commerce sites I've worked on. An oft-parroted best practice in UX is "effective user interface places users in control of the application." This study seems to agree: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-enduring/ https://www.nngroup.com/articles/top-10-enduring/ >Many of our study participants moved to a new site or subsite without realizing it and then struggled to get back to the main site because the subsite offered no option for return Using target=_blank ensures the Back button is broken. A third-party site disabling the Back button is out of your control.
- dazc 9y ago
  Thanks for the further information.

kccqzy 9y ago

In my experience, users who know the Back button exists are already one step ahead. Some users don’t know Back/Forward buttons at all. When they open a link that replaces their current page, they have no idea how to go back; they close this tab, open a new one, uses Google to search for the original page and hope to find it. Furthermore actual pop-up windows are associated with ads but a new tab? Not so much.