Personally, I've found the opposite in many cases to be true, depending on circumstance...opening a link in a new window CAN be helpful to the user, and they quite often appreciate it.

For example, let's say you run a high-value product retail site (just to make it really simple, let's say you're a car dealer). You have 100 cars on your site, different makes, different models, different specifications, etc. You want to be able to link to a manufacturer's site because it has information, PDFs, things that they won't necessarily let you lift and put on your site (even though you're reselling their products). You still want to provide that information to your end user.

This is where an external link can not only come in handy, but is very much appreciated (as long as you give the user fair warning). The reason? Many of the large manufacturer sites exhibit behavior (redirects, etc.) that break the back button. The average user will click a back button, get redirected back to manufacturer's site, get pissed off and go somewhere else...taking your site with it. On the other hand, "X" works every time. They close the window and they're fine. Believe it or not, I've actually heard compliments from users of my clients' sites for opening links in an external window.

Now...this depends on the site and the userbase (I usually find that among sites with a less tech-savvy userbase, this is the smarter way to go), but it can often work. Basically, my rule is "if the external site is a reference, open it in a new window."

Now yes, John, you may be capable of opening a site in a new window without being forced to, and I may be capable of it too. The problem is that we're two people. The majority of people don't even know they can right-click a link and pick "Open in a new window" or shift-click a link.

So...there's nothing wrong with the concept of opening links in new windows IF it fits the needs of your site and its userbase. Just don't go overboard and stupid with it, that's all.

Originally Posted by johneva

The idea is it should not be the webmaster who makes the sites choice on wether a new window is opened but the users choice, nothing I hate more than being on a site which keeps opening new windows for me. If I want it in a new window or a new tab I am more than caperble of making it do it myself I dont need the websites coding to do it for me.

The other side of the coin being that when I'm reading a page that manages to hold my interest, but links out to other subjects I'd also like to read up on ... I want to be able to follow those links without loosing my place in the current document. I get so tired of right clicking and hitting 'new tab' in the menu when I read something good.

On my site, at least, opening links in a new tab - or window in older browsers - is a reflection of my habits as a web surfer.

Originally Posted by Colin

Hey...I want to know if there is a way to achieve the effect of the target="_blank" tag in xhtml 1.0 strict? I would rather not use javascript so please let me know if there is another option...Thanks...

it is not valid for a Strict doctype.