[thelist] Opening new windows or not [was: dumb css questions for valid XHTML 1.0 Strict]

[Shawn K. Quinn]

On Mon, 2007-05-28 at 22:29 +0200, Rick den Haan wrote:
> Shawn K. Quinn wrote:
> > I compare (suggesting that) having links open in a new window is
> like
> > having the gas pedal in a car work like a brake pedal half the time
> at
> > random. (And I say "suggesting that" because this *can* be
> overridden
> > with e.g. Privoxy and/or a Firefox setting.)
> 
> It's an interesting comparison, certainly.  However, remember the late
> nineties?  All (OK, maybe not all, but certainly most) websites with
> external links opened them in new windows using the target="_blank"
> method.
> IMO, this became the de facto method of opening off-site links, and
> surfers
> started expecting this behavior.

I started using the Web in 1995. I found it incredibly annoying then,
and I still do today. On one hand I am glad we now have tools like
Firefox (and many of the add-ons for it), Privoxy, and Tor. On the
other, I think it's absurd at what I have to do to get a browser to act
the way *I* want it to and protect myself from privacy invasions.

> Yes, the default behavior can be overridden by a browser setting, but
> how
> many people do you know that use Firefox and know of about:config?
> And I
> mean the average websurfer here, not other developers or IT workers.

Two out of three that I can think of off the top of my head. The one
that doesn't is my roommate and he barely knows we run "something
besides Windows" on our PC.

-- 
Shawn K. Quinn <skquinn at speakeasy.net>