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target="_blank" is an anti-user design choice. If a link does not set target="_blank", you can always choose how it will be opened: in this tab, or in a new on

target="_blank" is an anti-user design choice. If a link does not set target="_blank", you can always choose how it will be opened: in this tab, or in a new one, with a left or middle click. If it has target="_blank", it'll always open in a new tab, even if you don't want it to, and there's no visual indicator that this parameter has been set. I never set target="_blank" as a general rule for this reason.

james-skemp 6y ago
Glad to see accessibility covered in one of the first comments on this. The relevant WCAG 2.0 information: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G201.html https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G201.html PowerMapper has some more information (not affiliated, just a happy customer): https://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/navigation/a-target-blank/ https://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/navigation/...
aitchnyu 6y ago
If your page takes time to load and is not cached, opening in new tab makes it tolerable. Making virtue of of necessity and all that. Irritating example of slow page and regular links, scroll down, open a product link in same page, go back and wait for the spinner and see you lost scroll position. https://www.amazon.in/stores/page/7ACF7524-1CDD-45DE-A4F5-124C1DF4357A?ingress=2&visitId=1407ec1b-c2a3-4339-a7c0-75f60bf782b3&ref_=ast_bln&productGridPageIndex=2 https://www.amazon.in/stores/page/7ACF7524-1CDD-45DE-A4F5-12...
- ddevault 6y ago
  The solution to this is not to use target="_blank" - it's not making the origin page non-cachable, take a long time to load, or require client-side state.
ziml77 6y ago
There are times where it's a good thing. The big one for me is if it's a link to documentation/help while in the middle of something where you don't want to lose state such as filling out a form. I always middle-click those out of caution, but they almost always do the smart thing. (Though I hate when the anchor's href is "javascript:void(0)" and middle clicking doesn't work. In that case it's usually set that way because it displays a modal or other form of help overlay, but there's no guarantee so I just have to pray)
zzo38computer 6y ago
I agree. However, at least on Firefox I can set the "browser.link.open_newwindow" option to disable this feature (and to otherwise configure it); I set it to 1 to tell it to ignore target="_blank".

james-skemp 6y ago

Glad to see accessibility covered in one of the first comments on this. The relevant WCAG 2.0 information: https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G201.html https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G201.html PowerMapper has some more information (not affiliated, just a happy customer): https://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/navigation/a-target-blank/ https://www.powermapper.com/tests/screen-readers/navigation/...

aitchnyu 6y ago

If your page takes time to load and is not cached, opening in new tab makes it tolerable. Making virtue of of necessity and all that. Irritating example of slow page and regular links, scroll down, open a product link in same page, go back and wait for the spinner and see you lost scroll position. https://www.amazon.in/stores/page/7ACF7524-1CDD-45DE-A4F5-124C1DF4357A?ingress=2&visitId=1407ec1b-c2a3-4339-a7c0-75f60bf782b3&ref_=ast_bln&productGridPageIndex=2 https://www.amazon.in/stores/page/7ACF7524-1CDD-45DE-A4F5-12...

ddevault 6y ago
The solution to this is not to use target="_blank" - it's not making the origin page non-cachable, take a long time to load, or require client-side state.

ziml77 6y ago

There are times where it's a good thing. The big one for me is if it's a link to documentation/help while in the middle of something where you don't want to lose state such as filling out a form. I always middle-click those out of caution, but they almost always do the smart thing. (Though I hate when the anchor's href is "javascript:void(0)" and middle clicking doesn't work. In that case it's usually set that way because it displays a modal or other form of help overlay, but there's no guarantee so I just have to pray)

zzo38computer 6y ago

I agree. However, at least on Firefox I can set the "browser.link.open_newwindow" option to disable this feature (and to otherwise configure it); I set it to 1 to tell it to ignore target="_blank".