You Choose the Target!
July 2, 2008 – 12:08 pm
Ok, I’m going to try to keep this short and sweet. But first, let me tell you why.
I believe I have a problem, perhaps genetic, that does not allow me to make sentences shorter than originally written or determine when an article has gone on for too long, resulting in things like paragraph-long sentences, long meandering digressions, people having to take a bathroom break before finishing one of my articles, and browsers crashing as they run out of memory.
That said, now I have even less space to write this article. Ok, let’s get to it.
You probably know what an anchor tag is. If you don’t, you may still be using AOL as your internets provider. An anchor tag usually the first or second HTML tag that you learn in how-to-build-a-web-page-1.0-school. It’s so ubiquitous, in fact, that I won’t even show you an example here.
So, one of the attributes you can give the anchor tag is called target. This allows you to define where the link in the anchor tag goes. This was super-awesome in 1996 when you had a two-frame web page and you wanted links in one frame to go to pages in the other frame.
Things change. Having frames in your web pages now means instant ridicule and ostracization from polite society.
So the target attribute died too, right? Not even close. Now, if you give your anchor tag a target, and the web browser can’t find a window with the target name, it just creates a new browser window with that target. Some browsers can be configured to open a new tab, instead.
Over time, then, this minor attribute that had a valid use before modern CSS methodology, has now been co-opted into quite a different use than originally intended.
“Great!” You might think. “I like having my links open in a new tab anyway.” (I know I did, for a long time.)
The only problem is, there has always been a way to force a link to open in a new window or tab, and the opposite is not true. For example, if you hold shift or alt when clicking on a link, it will open in a new tab or window. However, what do you click to force a link to open in the same window? There is no key. It can’t be done. Your choice is gone.
That is the crux of the problem. Not everyone wants the choice taken away from them.
I decided a few weeks ago to start removing all the targets from the anchor tags on my site. Steven Hodson, author of WinExtra (and now of Mashable fame), has as well. I’ll be investigating ways of perhaps having a small icon next to links to indicate that it opens in a new window, but for now, it is in your hands.
PS - Does anyone have any tips for a WordPress plugin or other utility for making a quick little “open link in new window” icon automatically in posts?
Tags: anchor, anchor tag, html, Steven Hodson, tag, WinExtra, WordpressRelated posts
FriendFeed Stats • Comments: 3 • Likes: 4 • show
Add New Comment
Viewing 16 Comments
Thanks. Your comment is awaiting approval by a moderator.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Do you already have an account? Log in and claim this comment.
Add New Comment
Trackbacks