Let us be serious. If a link is not opened in a new window and the content
of the link is not what the visitor expected it to be, he/she will close the
window instead of using the back button.
I doubt it very much.
This happens in 99% of the cases I guess.
Bad guess.
Internet users are mostly no computer experts.
Exactly. But there still is many of those as well.
Most of us in this
newsgroup know a lot more about surfing than the average internet user.
True. And many knows more about avarage users than you. And many know
more about surfing than you. I regularly use windows, tabs and other wasy
to keep all 10 - 50 pages I have in order (I have less than 10 pages open
maybe once a month). New windows make things hard to handle. After all,
it is not just windows, but their back histories.
Don't create something according your benefits but instead keep your
visitors in mind.
Exactly. If your assumptions wouldn't be totally incorrect, you would
understand it.
BTW, I often try to use back function myself when new pages are opened
whiout my consent. I know people that get very confused about new
windows, even if I have tried to explain it multible times. I know nobody
that likes new windows, and can't create one.
Try to create "fool-proof" sites. Clicking by mistake on a grayed
back-button has no result.
True.
Closing by mistake a window has.
Sure, at least some browsers...
Closing the new window always bring you back to the point you came from,
even after clicking several links which gave you several new windows.
Yes, but you never find the original point from that window. Especially
confucing when you advance in that new window, and reuse/close/advance in
the existing.
Not using "target="_blank"" makes people get lost in a web of pages.
Somehow I trust some other people more than you. People that have
actually done some user testing:
Jakob Nielsen:
http://www.useit.com/
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html
Karl Core:
http://www.karlcore.com/articles/article.php?id=25
And general opinion:
http://www.google.com/search?&q=opening+new+windows