Know what drives me nuts? When I’m reading sites – using Firefox, and wonderful browser with tabs that I often use – and I click a link on a blog and it opens in a whole new window.
Thanks, but I actually wanted to open that in the same window where your site was opened. If I wanted it in a new window, I would have right-clicked and selected either “open in new window” or “open in new tab”. Really, it’s not nice to make that decision for me.
And don’t even get me started on people that disable the ability to right-click on their sites. That is pretty much the worst thing ever, and it really doesn’t protect your images. I promise, I could still get them if I wanted them.
Why can’t people just let us surf in peace?
16 replies on “Let Me Decide…”
Er, I am guilty of this… 🙂 …of laboriously adding ‘target=”_blank”‘ to all extra-blog links on my site. I suppose I do it because as a visitor I’d rather have extra windows open than selectively hold Apple when clicking. And I guess I do this because there are a lot of sites out there where they’re doing some sort of redirect magic that prevents the back button from working properly (requiring multiple clicks, or manually selecting the page I want to go back to), thus making it hard to get back to the page I jumped there from. Bleh.
Sounds like a good feature for Firefox – “Allow link target to specify new window.” 😉
Actually, my preferences for this are site-dependant. If I’m looking at memepool.com, randomfoo.net, engadget.com, or some other link-heavy blog, I want things to open in a new window so I don’t lose the source. For other, more pure content-heavy sites (more writing, less links, like yours), I want things to open in the same window because I’m likely to be done with that site when I exit.
Of course, if I want to open anything, I just open it in a new tab now. Saves me window clutter, and overrides any of the new window or not stuff.
Most of the links on my blog open up in a new windows. I like it some times. Actually most links I just right click on all the time so I get them to open up where I want them to open up. I also hate when the right-click is disabled, but it really doesn’t affect me now since I got the FireFox extension that blocks them.
Yeah, FireFox rocks! I will never, ever again use IE as my main browser; only when I “have” to… which is probably more irritating than links that open in new windows! (Sites that are completely IE specific) Blah. Yuck. :p
*raises hand in guilt*
I don’t do it anymore though…
i totally do it. and it’s mainly because i don’t want to lose the page i’m on. my blogroll is guilty of this. but more often than not,i right-click and open them in new tabs. sorry.
i totally do it. and it’s mainly because i don’t want to lose the page i’m on. my blogroll is guilty of this. but more often th
Well, it makes sense that you don’t want to lose the page you are on – but then you can right click too, instead of making us all open new windows. Right? Maybe everyone needs to bring back the “open in new window” checkbox option for their blog so that those of us that don’t want it can select not to have it happen?
Most of the time, I right click while browsing – but it drives me crazy when I actually expect a link to open in the current window. 🙂
You might be intrigued to know that newer versions of Firefox include a) an option to open all links in a single window, and b) an option in the advanced javascript preferences to disable scripts that disable right-clicking. 🙂
The extension (or plugin) called TargetAlert puts a little icon beside text links indicating whether a new window will open. The plugin can be configured to show a variety of icons for targets, including pdfs, email Microsoft document formats…..
I have been using it for a couple of weeks now.
http://www.bolinfest.com/targetalert/
quite a while back I read something about this in how to “fix” your blog… went through and changed all my “open in new window commands” with the exception of my blogroll… letting you decide how to surf!
I make my links open in new windows because that’s how I prefer it. I also hate when right-clicking is disabled. Just yesterday I was at a sight that had a code I needed to copy and paste, yet right click was disabled. WTF? Why are you going to say “copy this code” then disable right click. I hate having to use CTRL-C.
I use control C even when I can right click… however, these people are smart enough to block copy but dont see the “file/ save as” button up there? Duh…
I must have a plugin installed that forces those “new windows” to open in a new tab instead… But usually when I install plugins, I do them a few at a time, so I’m not even sure which one does that now! LOL! I’ll have to take a look and see if I can figure it out…
An All New Post with 85% More Unnecessary White Space!
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This post is comprised of various ‘Draft’ posts which have sat neglected since October 14. It’s a full-fat post, but there’s no added sugar and contains 11 essential vitamins and minerals. As always, links open in new windows. Why would I write all…