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

Jeff Schiller wrote:
> Thomas,
> 
>> How many use Transitional because they want/have to use the target=
>> attribute with a value other than _blank?
> 
> Excellent question.  Perhaps that's the other 50% of the votes?  At
> least one person mentions _top in there.
> 
> I also think the poll should include more than 10 total votes :)
> 
> As for naming a view - that would be hard given the existing footprint
> of using _blank everywhere.  I'm not sure why _blank was not made
> conforming, can anyone give the history?
> 

In the early days (circa 1996), there was an imperative to use "target=_top" to
avoid issues with the use of frames to surround other people's content with your
advertising. News organisations in particular did not like this.

Doing a google search to remind me what _blank does,  I found and agree with the
comments about readers, in the quote below.

I would also add that authors should be aware
that navigation back to their site from the new page isn't possible, or at least
not in the browsers I use.

> This value does not require the use of any frames. "_blank" is popular in web pages which are devoted to links to "other resources on the net". By opening a new window for each resource, the user has a sense of a "main" page (the list of resources) and "secondary" pages (each individual resource). However, this results in cluttering the computer screen, which may irritate some of your readers.
<http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/linking/_A_TARGET_95y98y108y97y110y107y.html>

Marghanita

> Regards,
> Jeff
> 
> 
> On 2/13/08, Thomas Broyer <t.broyer@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Feb 13, 2008 7:00 PM, Simon Pieters wrote:
>>> I made a straw poll about why people are using Transitional:
>>>
>>>    http://www.sitepoint.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3722104
>>>
>>> Judging from that poll, common reasons are:
>>>
>>>    * Desire to use target="_blank".
>>>    * Other people's software emit stuff that only validates as
>>>      Transitional (target="_blank" in particular).
>> How many use Transitional because they want/have to use the target=
>> attribute with a value other than _blank?
>>
>>> For these reasons, I'd suggest to make target="_blank" conforming.
>> Is coining names that hard?
>>
>> e.g. <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=Thomas+Broyer"
>> target="me_on_google">Search for me on Google</a>
>> or <a href="http://bigtits.example.com" target="wordpress_12">Maybe my
>> site can interest you</a>
>>
>> --
>> Thomas Broyer
>>
>>
> 
> 


-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202

Received on Wednesday, 13 February 2008 22:55:34 UTC