New Windows

[DougBTX]

Here's a quote for you, just saw it on a TV program and pulled the text from the web: Click Online by the BBC, talking about http://www.aldaily.com/

My major criticsim of this site would be that clicking on a link opens the new site in the current window which means you'll be using your browser back button a lot or hitting control+N to open a new window. It's quite basic but new windows for new sites please!

Here's a link to a text version of the article: http://www.bbcworld.com/content/temp...66&co_pageid=6

Later,
Douglas

[redux]

to pick up the discussion...let's see http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/#gl-interim-accessibility

Until user agents allow users to turn off spawned windows, do not cause pop-ups or other windows to appear and do not change the current window without informing the user.

(emphasis mine)

so, in the light of accessibility/WAI-WCAG1.0, it's still fine to actually pop up new windows, but the user needs to be made aware of this. maybe a copout, but presumably for a large site such as aldaily, they may get away with having all links open in new windows and provide a blanket statement at the top of the page advising users that all links open in new windows. yes, ideally the link itself should signal this, but on a site made almost entirely of external links, it can get very tiresome if you tab your way through and all the time you hear "site X - opens in a new window"...

[pissant]

there is a technique which has been devekoped which shows a lot of promise, basically if the link includes 'http' or 'mailto' or anything you choose really, you can add like a little icon, or change colour or anything like that to indicate that a link is off site (and thus new windowy etc)
for more info check this out
http://my-dimension.com/article/mini_icons/

[Webnauts]

Actually we should not force links to open in a new window or popups (such as with the "target" attribute or with JavaScript).

For example pop-ups destroy the back button thereby making it difficult to return to previous pages.

If you absolutely must open a link in a new window, explicitly warn the user with a clear indication that the page will open in a different window. Provide a title attribute on the anchor tag with a description indicating that the link opens a new window; for example:


Code: <a href=""http://www.eypd2003.org target="_blank" title="Link opens in new window.">European Year of People with Disabilities 2003 (new window)</a>

Further reading:

Not opening new windows: http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_16_not_opening_new_windows.html
Opening a link in a new window...: http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-validator/2002Apr/0100.html