2 ms·

I see it often in intranets, wikis, and PDF documentation. It's an additional context clue that you're leaving a closed website. The most egregious examples giv

by pfranz 6y ago

I see it often in intranets, wikis, and PDF documentation. It's an additional context clue that you're leaving a closed website. The most egregious examples give you a separate click-through screen when leaving the website. Government web pages seem to do this the most. It would be nice if we could all use a standard icon or some other constant UI element--like a single underline for internal references and double underline for external? I imagine unique colors would be too difficult to standardize.

chrisseaton 6y ago
Yeah but why? What do people do with the information that a link is external? Do people think 'I'll follow this link - oh no wait a minute it's external I won't'?
- SquareWheel 6y ago
  Sure. Why not? If you're browsing a hotel you plan to stay at, you may want to spend some time learning about it before booking. Accidentally clicking an external link takes you away from that. Techies will know to just open it in a new tab, but most will have to remember to browse back to the site manually. It can be a disruptive process.
- recursive 6y ago
  > Do people think 'I'll follow this link - oh no wait a minute it's external I won't'? Some do, sometimes. Or perhaps they'll think 'I won't follow this link - oh no wait a minute, it's external I will'.
- pfranz 6y ago
  Specifically in those circumstances it's more important than normal; intranet, government, and PDF documents. Intranet: bespoke documentation to internal processes verses generic documents used for reference. Government: external references can be hijacked (asking for personal information) or may not represent the government but still have relevant info. PDF documents: jumping around a PDF document (from a table of contents) is different than going to an external website. Especially if you don't have Internet access at that moment. I think all of this is significantly more important since browser have been hiding more URLs.

by pfranz 6y ago

chrisseaton 6y ago

Yeah but why? What do people do with the information that a link is external? Do people think 'I'll follow this link - oh no wait a minute it's external I won't'?

SquareWheel 6y ago
Sure. Why not? If you're browsing a hotel you plan to stay at, you may want to spend some time learning about it before booking. Accidentally clicking an external link takes you away from that. Techies will know to just open it in a new tab, but most will have to remember to browse back to the site manually. It can be a disruptive process.
recursive 6y ago
> Do people think 'I'll follow this link - oh no wait a minute it's external I won't'? Some do, sometimes. Or perhaps they'll think 'I won't follow this link - oh no wait a minute, it's external I will'.
pfranz 6y ago
Specifically in those circumstances it's more important than normal; intranet, government, and PDF documents. Intranet: bespoke documentation to internal processes verses generic documents used for reference. Government: external references can be hijacked (asking for personal information) or may not represent the government but still have relevant info. PDF documents: jumping around a PDF document (from a table of contents) is different than going to an external website. Especially if you don't have Internet access at that moment. I think all of this is significantly more important since browser have been hiding more URLs.