New Window or Old Window - Which Should be Used for an External Link?
Written by David Broadhead, Ph.D.   
Tuesday, 01 December 2009 09:12
There has been a controversy raging for quite some time between people who say all external links must open in a new window, and others who say the links should use the same window. I say that this controversy is spurious.
by DavidBroadhead,Ph.D.


There has been a controversy raging for quite some time between people who say all external links must open in a new window, and others who say the links should use the same window. I say that this controversy is spurious.

What is the "controversy"?

Commonly, those people who want to have a new window opening are the people who own the website. And arguing against that position are the web designers who want to maintain strict web standards.

The usual reason for favoring a new window opening is that the owner of the website is afraid of losing viewers. If the link opens in the same window, then the viewer has left his website. Of course, this does not mean that the viewer is gone forever. To my knowledge, there is no evidence for or against this.

The reason for favoring the same window is that strict adherence to web standards requires not using the target attribute of the link to open a new window, as this attribute has been deprecated.

In any case, it is easy enough for the viewer to come back to the original website. He can right-click the link and select "Open in a New Window", thereby saving the old window to return to later. Or he can just use the same window, but return to the originating website by using his BACK button.

Why is this "controversy" spurious?

To the best of my understanding, the reason for the W3C ban on the target attribute is that HTML - the language they are being "strict" about - is supposed to contain only information about WHAT is to be shown in the window of the browser. It is not supposed to concern itself with HOW or WHERE it is shown.

HOW the information is shown is dictated by CSS. Interactions between the viewer and the browser are governed by the DOM. So consequently, opening a new window should be done by scripting.

This is why there should be no controversy. If the site owner wants offsite links to open in a new window, then the web designer can do so by using scripting. This will not violate the "strictness" of the W3C, and the webpage will validate. See the paragraph below for an easy way of accomplishing this.

About the Author:

Visit the author's website, Professor's Coding Corner for some useful code snippets and tutorials on interesting aspects of web programming. On one page, you will find some simple open new window code that will satisty strict web standards.