I'm marking up a page right now, have a list of Twitter users to link to and am debating the use of target="_blank" without an explicit "new tab/window" icon.<p>I personally have no use for this anymore. If I am browsing a webpage and I want the link to open in a new tab I will do it myself, otherwise I expect it to open in the same tab.<p>How do others feel about this?
I hate it when websites do this, because it overrides the expected behavior of the browser with the author's desires. People who want each link to open in a new tab/window know about Ctrl-Click or Right-Click+Open-in-new-window. They can do it themselves if they desire. For everyone else, this is rude, annoying, and breaks the back button.
I think using it is still appropriate when you know the user isn't intending to really leave the page they're on.<p>For example, clicking on a help link (while filling out a screen) or anything else that would disrupt what the user's doing unintentionally.
If you're using target="_blank", you should let the user know that a new tab/window will open. Probably use a symbol like this: <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/checkout/developer/files/OpenInNewWindow14x14.png" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/apis/checkout/developer/files/OpenInN...</a>
Use it only when you need a new tab/window to open and nowhere else. You don't want to try and make a user's life easier by guessing if they'd open a new tab, because some won't want to.<p>The only place I've used it in months is on Facebook iFrame applications where otherwise avoiding it would cause a larger page to load in a smaller area and get cut off.<p>As another poster mentioned, it would be good to mark as opening in a new window with an icon or text. When it's a small bit of information (like a couple paragraphs of help text), I always appreciate a modal window or tooltip first.
There's a long-standing Chrome bug where middle-clicking target="NAMED" links opens them in a new tab in the <i>foreground</i>, not the background as is expected. So annoying.<p><a href="http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=62319" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=62319</a>
I understand the sentiment and don't use it on personal sites. For apps, though, I don't quite have the confidence that my users will know to open external links in new tabs.