Re: Why authors are using Transitional (and target="_blank")

On Feb 13, 2008, at 6:00 PM, Simon Pieters wrote:

>
> Using a script that window.open()s links sacrifises discoverability  
> for users that the link is going to open in a new window. Referer  
> headers aren't sent with window.open(). Users might want  
> target=_blank and window.open() do different things since the former  
> is mostly used for external links and the latter is used for help  
> popups and the like.

 From the implementation perspective, it's definitely easier to  
control what happens and give appropriate feedback to the user when a  
link uses target=_blank than window.open. For this reason, I agree  
that target=_blank should remain conforming. On the other hand, many  
sites (for instance gmail) use window.open plus additional script  
trickery to open new windows because target=_blank is considered not  
to provide enough security separation. It might be useful to add a  
target value to directly support this use case.

Regards,
Maciej

Received on Thursday, 14 February 2008 10:01:20 UTC