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Originally Posted by jonathan lall
Good semantic HTML coding never, ever, opens a new window. Ever. Any consumer with half a brain, perhaps less, can do that himself when he wants to, and can tell when he's leaving a site (thus negating the helping hand webmasters might think they're giving when they open external links in a new window). It's almost pretentious to say that your website should remain open for some reason when someone clicks on a link (a link to what they really want to see), but at least when it's an external link using a new window makes some sense.
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I must disagree here. Opening a new window or not should be by
design and
intent. Not as rule of thumb.
If the intent of the link is informational, and by design the web page thats called up references the information on the linking page then the link should open a new window (example: a link saying "our robot" opens a new window {appropriately sized} with a picture or our robot).
If the intent is to navigate away from the website then no new window should be brought up (Example: a web-ring link for FIRST teams).
External links should only open up a new window if the user is expected to return to the linking page.
Also never assume the computer literacy of your viewer. Many people with very little competence with computers browse the Internet.