Opening new windows is a snake's nest of usability and accessibility
problems.
Why do you think AOL and Earthlink offer popup blockers? Why do Mozilla,
Opera, and Google Toolbar have settings to interrupt new windows opening?
Because they're a f&*%king nightmare to deal with and they *are not*
user-friendly.
Oh, good grief. I've had nightmares, and new windows are not a nightmare.
I'd say they're more on the order of this freakin' mosquito that's
buzzing by my head every so often and who's gonna die pretty soon. Also,
new windows should be distinguished from popups, and further distinction
made for those that open without user input (the ads we all hate and
block) as opposed to those that open when a user clicks the link (the new
windows and/or popups that *some* people hate, *some* don't care, and
*some* find helpful when done in appropriate circumstances).
In the overwhelming majority of the time, pop-up windows are unneccessary,
annoying, and inaccessible.
I agree with that assessment (tho not sure about intended meaning of
'inaccessible'). But as with many things, the "thing" is not the evil,
but rather the manner in which it's used. Kind of like the saying "guns
don't kill people, people kill people". In the overall scheme of things,
however, popups are rarely lethal. But I've wondered if those flashing
ads could trigger an epileptic episode.
If you're opening pop-ups for supplemental content, you need to reassess the
information architecture of the site.
See Nielsen comment quoted below.
Top Ten New Mistakes of Web Design: (#2 Opening new windows)
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html
At
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530_comments.html Mr. Nielsen says:
<quote>To me, a pop-up is a window that is intended as a supplement to a
primary browser window. Thus, it is typically smaller and it does not
contain a "full" page of info. In contrast, the "new browser windows" I
warned against as mistake #2 are intended to stand on their own and
contain a full page. I actually agree that pop-ups can be useful; I
simply observe that users often close the pop-ups without even looking at
their content. Thus, I currently warn against using them for anything
essential. Help may in fact be a great example of an appropriate pop-up:
the text should definitely be short and it is best to be able to see the
help without changing or obscuring the original context.</quote>