[whatwg] Proposal: target="_reference"

On 26/04/2008, Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt at myrealbox.com> wrote:
> Summary: I propose target="_reference", which would open a link in a
> secondary viewport, for example a closable pane at the bottom of a browser
> window. This would be much less annoying and intimidating than
> target="_blank". It could be used immediately for providing help, and for
> linking to privacy policies, terms of use, etc within forms. Eventually it
> could also be used for footnotes and endnotes.

IE6 supported target=_search and target=_media, to open pages in
sidebars (closable panes at the side of the browser window). Nobody
uses those target values (in 130K pages I see 3 pages with either),
and http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms534659(VS.85).aspx says
_media was dropped in XP SP2 and _search was dropped in IE7 ("for
security reasons"). _reference sounds functionally very similar, so
how would it avoid those security problems and why would it be more
successful in practice?

-- 
Philip Taylor
excors at gmail.com