Should I Use a New Window or the Same Window for Opening an External Link?

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.

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.

Website owners are fearful of losing their viewers to another site. If clicking a link causes a new website to appear in the same window, then the viewer must take positive action to return to the original site. Even though there is no evidence that I know of to support viewers not coming back, owners are reluctant to take a chance on losing possible sales.

Proponents of using the same window point out that strict web standards do not allow the use of the target attribute, since this has now been deprecated by the W3C, the consortium that sets the rules.

And the viewer does indeed have two easy ways to come back to the original site. He can use his BACK button to return. Or he can right-click the link and choose to open a new window himself.

Why is this "controversy" spurious?

As I understand it, the W3C banned the target attribute because HTML is not supposed to concern itself with anything but WHAT is shown in the browser window. The HOW and WHERE aspects of a web page are governed by other systems.

CSS dictates HOW web page information is shown. And everything else is done through the DOM. Therefore, what happens when a link is clicked is rightly the province of 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 Professor's website, Professor's Coding Corner for useful code snippets and tutorials on interesting facets of web programming. In particular, there is some simple open new window code that will satisty strict web standards.