TA and myself were talking about (well bickering) about whether it is better to have a link open in a new window, such as I do with shirt images and it seems that we both creatively disagree with each other. I am sure that comes as a real surprise to everyone.

I can see having a link open in a new window when it’s used in a resource page or something similar but I am leaning towards using it for product images. I am hoping we can get some good feedback on this matter (unlike discussions about the DOCTYPE declaration that you do not need) so what’s best, _blank or????

for your images, yes, _blank as long at the window size is specified to the size of the image - not a complete overlay ...
For product pages no, keep them within the site
For odering (while you have that aweful paypal cart system) then that too can be in  a _blank I'd suggest - for customer ease of navigation.

matte wrote:

for your images, yes, _blank as long at the window size is specified to the size of the image - not a complete overlay ...
For product pages no, keep them within the site
For odering (

while you have that aweful paypal cart system

) then that too can be in  a _blank I'd suggest - for customer ease of navigation.

If you go back to my last thread for my Site Review (the post that no one commented on), you may get a chance to look into the future.

you mean this one.
Lots of comments there...

Yes, take a peek at the very last one. You have not been hanging around TA have you?

obviously no-one has had any experience with it! I've Given my recommendation!

waveshoppe wrote:

TA and myself were talking about (well bickering) about whether it is better to have a link open in a new window, such as I do with shirt images and it seems that we both creatively disagree with each other. I am sure that comes as a real surprise to everyone.

I can see having a link open in a new window when it’s used in a resource page or something similar but I am leaning towards using it for product images. I am hoping we can get some good feedback on this matter (unlike discussions about the DOCTYPE declaration that you do not need) so what’s best, _blank or????

Thumb nail pics on the site and a link to open a new window for more details and closer shot of product, I have seen a few that also allows you to order from the open window.or add this product to your cart while you can still shop more.

Renee

I wrote a tutorial about this issue: http://www.webnauts.net/new-window.html
And by the way, you might would like to see how this image gallery works: http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/lightbox.html#flower8

If I am understanding this discussion correctly   the coding that is being  discussed is the following <a href="yoursite.com"  target="_blank">
If it is..My theory is that since my website is  a basic informational site, my visitors will be  reading a basic subject and if they need more info on the subject, I provide a text link that the visitor can click on, visit the other site, close that site and return back to my site.   also since I have "adsense" on my site doesn't this count as two visit, which if I am right is the major plus of this coding>

At least it would be fair to warn the user that a new window will open, or?

If you want to make your pages compliant no! you must not make a window open in a new window.
At least this is true in xhtml 1.0.

Here is a work around for it.

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/standa … nt-world/3

danimal wrote:

If you want to make your pages compliant no! you must not make a window open in a new window.
At least this is true in xhtml 1.0.

Here is a work around for it.

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/standa … nt-world/3

My pages are compliant and my FORUM link opens in a new window....

Don't want this thread to go off topic so I will briefly respond to Marks statement.

My pages are compliant and my FORUM link opens in a new window....

True Mark as long as you rely totally on Tidy. If you validate your site SWJC at the W3C at http://validator.w3.org/ you will find that at Line 22 column 72: there is no attribute "target" is listed as an error and not allowed.

Decided I would put my 2 cents in as to the original question.

waveshoppe wrote:

I can see having a link open in a new window when it’s used in a resource page or something similar but I am leaning towards using it for product images. I am hoping we can get some good feedback on this matter (unlike discussions about the DOCTYPE declaration that you do not need) so what’s best, _blank or????

You could do this by having the larger images just open in a user friendly pop-up. This way it is easier for them to go back to the page they were on just by closing the pop-up.

webnaut wrote:

At least it would be fair to warn the user that a new window will open, or?

I would agree with webnaut in that it would be fair to your visitors to give them a warning about a certain link or links opening in a new window.

As a person who despises popups, let me throw in that there are still certain uses for them.  In the case of an image gallery, I think it is helpful to be able to view the larger size in a popup, rather than it moving to another page and having to click back to get back to what I was looking at.

But, I do also agree that there should be a warning.  Put a note under said picture that states that clicking the image will open the full-size image in a new window and there should be no problem.

Edit:

Also I should note that I have read some arguments about not opening them in a new window because "the average internet user" would rather be able to click back.  For the record, with things like this, I disagree.

Well pop-ups are different than a link opening in a new window.  Using the target="_blank" option is completely legit depending on the case.  It makes sense when referencing an outside source within an article or any heavy content.  Another example would be in our site review section here on these forums - the site listed opens in a new window to allow people to quickly look at the site.

I think the key is to not be greedy - don't force a new window just to keep someone on your site.  Use a new window when it is genuinely going to be more convenient.

SiteReference wrote:

I think the key is to not be greedy - don't force a new window just to keep someone on your site.  Use a new window when it is genuinely going to be more convenient.

Well put SR

I have had quite a few customers comment (unsolicited) that they like having our product images open in a new window.

Our links just say enlarge shirt, so they expect it to fill the screen with an image of a Hawaiian shirt.  We send a feedback form with every order and the comments and high marks are simply amazing.

We ask them not just about the product, but the whole customer experience. Navigation and product quality consistently receive the highest marks. Things that webmasters do not like, are raved about by normal everyday people, maybe knowledge is just plain dangerous.

waveshoppe wrote:

Things that webmasters do not like, are raved about by normal everyday people, maybe knowledge is just plain dangerous.

It is always good to remember that as web professionals, we approach websites in an entirely different manner than the average surfer.  The average surfer will tend to have more tolerance for things such as ads, pop-ups, and Google ads. 

Usability is always the first goal of a site...

SiteReference wrote:

Well pop-ups are different than a link opening in a new window.  Using the target="_blank" option is completely legit depending on the case.

To a certain extent, that is true.  But I have visited a couple of sites that open just about everything in a new window, and it gets about as irritating as having a pile of popups.

I think the key is to not be greedy - don't force a new window just to keep someone on your site.  Use a new window when it is genuinely going to be more convenient.

I totally agree.