Links in a New Window?

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   multimasteryposted 17 years ago

   When creating links in the link boxes, is there a way to get them to open up in a new window?  If not this is a much needed option to provide convenience for HubPage visitors and improve visitor retention.

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2. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 17 years ago

   Links can't be opened in a new window from the link capsule.  In general, we think it's a better user experience to target the same window with the link.  But, there's a chance that we'll add this down the road.  Links created in a text capsule do have the option of targeting another window.

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   Apaeposted 17 years ago

   I honestly do think that would be a good option to add.

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      thecounterpunchposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      So do I

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   gabriella05posted 17 years ago

   Yes me to, I think it a good idea

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5. 65

   Mishaposted 17 years ago

   Usability experts in the industry unanimously agree opening links in the new window is a *bad* practice.
   
   The reason for this is that you deprive your users of their choice.
   
   If you open links in the same window, user can press shift or use right-click to open in a new window anyway. If you open links in a new window, there is no way user can change it.
   
   So, Hubpages are following industry best practices.

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      thecounterpunchposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      The author also knows if it is better to open the link in a new window or not. Let's the author decide, not the whole editor decide. Most of my links are "lookup" pages I would break the flow of reading if the user quits my hub.
      
      Sure you can right-click but from usability point of view it's not great it takes 5 more times to do so than just do click and as for me I almost never think to right-click and realise more often than not that I have forgotten to do so : I'm a very average internet user I know

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      jim.shengposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      I agree. If user click a link, his action means he want to visit that page, meanwhile leave current one.  From my own experience, I really hate to open a link in new window, cause I have to close the old window by click the cross button.

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6. 65

   Mishaposted 17 years ago

   I just offered you explanation for why Hubpages do it that way.
   
   You have a choice of having your own opinion on the subject, and Hubpages have a choice of going with the industry standard or deviating from it to please some of its authors, and then you have a choice of staying with Hubpages or leaving them if you don't like their choice
   
   Lots of choices, LOL

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      Stacie Naczelnikposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with Misha here.  We had a discussion about this in the forums a while ago that pulled me over to this side of thinking.  By making it automatically open up in a new window, you are taking away your visitor's choice.

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         Isabella Snowposted 17 years agoin reply to this

         Me, too, Stacie.

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         thecounterpunchposted 17 years agoin reply to this

         Not at all, you can always drag the link to the url zone and it takes less time than to right-click, move the mouse to the option menu, click again

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   darksideposted 17 years ago

   At times I'm linking to a site because it is a source. So the article will open in a new window. Because they're not done yet reading my article.
   
   Other times, at the end of the article when I want them to be somewhere else and reading more on the subject at another hub or some other site I will have it open in the parent window.
   
   I avail myself to the use of the tab function of Firefox constantly, but those new to the internet may find themselves a bit lost if they find click on a few links and end up somewhere far from the page that they were originally reading.
   
   They've always got a choice. They can choose to click the little cross in the top right hand corner of the browswer window if they want to shut down the page.

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   multimasteryposted 17 years ago

   I agree.  Most users are not Internet savvy enough to know (or remember to right click to open a new window).  I consider myself to be fairly Internet savvy and I forget myself oftentimes.  And sometimes I just neglect to do it because I'm not sure if a link will automatically open up in a new window when reading content on different websites.  And I get frustrated when I finally realize that I've ended up wayyy somewhere on the other side of the 'Net when I to locate the original site that I was on.  Most of the time it's a hassle trying to press the back button over & over again -and I just move on.  Or sometimes I make a mistake and x out of the site I visited (and if it wasn't a new window then I've lost both websites).  When that happens I might try logging on again but most of the time I get distracted by another 'great' website and just say forget it!
   
   Moral of the story: having the option of opening links in new windows (at least if you have several links on your page) increases site retention.  And the longer  visitors stay in the HubPage community the more that they can fully and completed digest our original content that we were dedicated to compose.  Also the longer we keep visitors in the HubPage community more googleads and links of ours will get clicked!$
   
   We have to put ourselves in the visitors' shoes.  We're considered the 'experts' in their eyes -  and they want us to 'guide' them.  And that means guiding them through our HubPage content as smooth and hassle-free as possible.  We need to lead them to where we want them to go.  No different from the way we choose our words to influence how they feel about a particular subject.  So as 'The Expert' we should be able to make individual judgement calls as to rather we feel a link should open in a new window or not.
   
   In the meantime I'll just compose all my content in the text boxes which supplies this option.

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      Mishaposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      Not that I oppose that way of thinking completely, but there is a very fine line we are walking here. Next in line measures to retain users will be pop-unders and exit pop-ups...
      
      While we all want to retain our visitors, we want to stay ethical doing that. Like it or not, opening links in a new window is considered unethical by many... because you leave your users no choice...

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         thecounterpunchposted 17 years agoin reply to this

         I think that using the word "ethical" in every occasion does make this term lose all its noble sense. Is splahing all the ads more "ethical" than that ?
         
         And as I said just above it doesn't conceal the choice for the user in fact it's easier to just drag the link to open in the same window. And 90% of the time on any website - I don't talk about hubpages - I want to open a link in a new window I consider that it is "unsuable" (rather than "unethical") for me to be obliged to right-click all the time.

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   Kenny Wordsmithposted 17 years ago

   I like it as it is, too.

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    Mishaposted 17 years ago

    Thecounterpunch, you don't really need to convince me in the point. I came from the same direction as you and some other guys on this thread, and did not consider this being bad practice. I still don't mind whether your links open in the same or a new window - personally.
    
    However, it is considered unethical (and I believe this is the first thread I am using this word) by the majority (if not all) of industry experts. I don't feel myself in a position to question their point of view just yet, and I try to follow the guidelines in what I do.
    
    I'm not going to talk for Paul here, I just wanted to let you guys know how internet professionals address this issue...

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    multimasteryposted 17 years ago

    Man I had no idea that this subject was this deep.  Does automatically opening up a few choice links in a new window really boil down to ethics?  Wow!!

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    Caregiver-007posted 17 years ago

    I agree with "multimastery" that most internet users are not so savvy - and many do not know about right-clicking. 
    
    I HATE IT when I end up way away from where I started, when all I wanted to do was check out a link, and that led me on an interesting bunny trail.  If I wasn't finished with the original article, I certainly didn't want to "lose" it!  And if I "x"-ed out of the window before realizing it was not a new one, then I lost the ability to back-tab to the article I was reading.  Argh!
    
    I find that problem to be much, much more frustrating for the reader than the "problem" of having to close out the new widows that are opened.  As a USER I vastly prefer new windows unless, as suggested, I'm at the end of an article and it's referring me on to the next page for more detail.  (I like that even better now that I have tabbed browsing with Firefox.)
    
    As a writer, I want to be able to link keywords to resources related to those individual words - but I don't want to lose the reader early on in my article.  If there were no ability within text capsules to put in a link that opened in a new window, then I would be forced to leave all links to the end - or risk losing a reader who really wanted and needed the valuable information I spent so long assembling and presenting just for him!

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    Apaeposted 17 years ago

    A few quite valid reasons have been made, and now I see both sides of the story. Misha's right in that opening links in the same window is the best practice.

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