open – Climb to the Stars

Links in New Windows: Websites vs. Applications [en]

[fr] En 2011, c'est toujours pas bien de forcer les liens à ouvrir dans une nouvelle fenêtre. Sauf, on peut l'admettre, quand votre site est en fait une application web.

I was surprised recently to realize that in 2011, it wasn’t obvious to everybody that forcing links to open in a new window (with target="_blank") was not a good idea.

Actually, there are quite a few high-profile sites which force links to open in new windows, and I realized I actually don’t mind it that much: Twitter is one. I like that when I click on a link in Twitter, it opens in a new tab. I’ve learned that Twitter does this, and I now rely on it.

So, maybe links in new windows aren’t always a bad thing?

Here’s what I think: if your “site” is in fact an application, then it doesn’t matter much. People will learn to use the interface of your web application, and if links open in new windows, they will discover that and (hopefully) remember it. However, if your site is a real site, meaning it contains stuff that people are going to read, and that stuff might contain links to other stuff people might want to read or see, then it remains a Bad Thing.

Why is it a Bad Thing to force links to open in a new window (in your blog, for example)? Here’s the reasoning behind this.

Normal behavior is that links open in the same window.
When you force a link to open in a new window, you’re breaking that expectation — and there is no way to know, by looking at the link, that it’s going to spawn a new window.
Opening new windows is a user decision, not a website design decision. Windows are part of the browser, not the site.
A link can easily be opened in a new tab or window by holding down a modifier key before clicking on it (Cmd/Ctrl for example).
A link which is set to be opened in a new window cannot be opened in the same window if that’s what the reader would prefer.
Opening links in new windows may confuse the user (who might not notice the new window) and breaks the back button (to go back, you have to close the current window instead of hitting the back button — adding a different way to “go back”… more confusion).

Summary:

if your site is actually a web application, where links open is part of the application design, and forcing links to open in a new window can make sense in certain situations;
if your site is a “proper website” or a blog, don’t force links to open in a new window — where they open belongs to the way your reader chooses to use his browser, and not to the website design.

Going Solo Leeds Registration Open [en]

[fr] Il est désormais possible de réserver sa place pour Going Solo Leeds, qui aura lieu le 12 septembre.

As announced a few days ago on the [Going Solo blog](http://going-solo.net), [registration for the Leeds conference on September 12th is now open](http://going-solo.net/2008/07/04/going-solo-leeds-registration-is-open/):

Hop along to our partner Expectnation‘s site to sign up right away.

Here’s the deal:

Early Bird (first 25 tickets — hurry up some have already been sold!): £150

Normal: £220

Late Bird (will kick in approx. 10 days before the conference date): £300

On-site (if you really want to play it ‘last minute’): £350

A comment or two:

for the Lausanne event, the first 25 tickets were sold in under a week

there will be advanced seminars (3h workshops) on the Saturday morning — more about them shortly, but know already that if you have already registered for the main conference when they are announced, you will get a special discount on them (they will be open only to conference participants)

Jet2.com is a low-cost company that flies to Leeds-Bradford International airport

Leeds is 2.5h from London by train (book early, and you could pay as little as £22.50 return)

the programme for the main conference is going to be very similar to the Lausanne one (don’t change a winning team) — videos are online for you to have a preview if you wish

the Going Solo team is pretty excited about all this!

Of course, let me remind you that [Going Solo Lausanne was a nice success](http://going-solo.net/2008/05/17/going-solo-lausanne-was-a-hit/), and that you can now [check out the videos of the talks](http://dailymotion.com/GoingSolo) online.

[Who is Going Solo for?](http://going-solo.net/2008/03/30/who-is-going-solo-for/)

Going Solo is a one-day event for freelancers and small business owners working in somewhere in the internet industry (designers, consultants, journalists, social media people, developers…) — or even outside of it (we actually think the topics we’ll cover are relevant for all freelancers).

Looking forward to seeing you in Leeds, and thanks for spreading the news around you!

Going Solo Registration Open! [en]

[fr] Il est maintenant possible de s'enregistrer pour la conférence Going Solo, le 16 mai à Lausanne! N'attendez pas, et profitez du prix spécial durant la première semaine de mise en vente. (On veut encourager les gens à s'inscrire tôt, donc tous les moyens sont bons, vous voyez ;-)).

Here we are… the moment everybody (I hope!) was waiting for: [Registration](http://going-solo.net/registration/) for Going Solo is now [open](http://going-solo.net/2008/02/11/registration-open/), with a special discount for everybody during this first week: 100 CHF off the Early Bird price!

You can head straight to the [registration form](https://goingfar.expectnation.com/goingsolo/public/register/order/) if you don’t want to lose a second (which I’m sure you don’t).

Questions? You’ll probably find the answers on the [Going Solo site](http://going-solo.net). If you don’t, leave a comment somewhere and I’ll do my best to answer!

Flickr: Open Up Tagging Your Photos to the Community, Please [en]

[fr] Permettez à tous les membres de Flickr de taguer vos photos. Moins de travail pour vous et de meilleurs tags pour vos photos!

Tagging one’s photos precisely on Flickr can be a bit of a drag, especially when you upload [over 200 conference photographs](http://flickr.com/photos/bunny/tags/reboot9) full of people you don’t necessarily know. Personally, I go through my photos once before uploading them, and the last thing I want to do when I’ve uploaded them is go through them *again* to add tags.

However, I find myself looking at other people’s photos with interest, and it doesn’t take much effort to quickly add a tag or a name while I’m doing that.

Unfortunately, many Flickr users open up tagging only to their contacts (the default, IIRC). My account was like that for a long time. When I [met Derek Powazek in Lausanne](http://flickr.com/photos/bunny/sets/72157600211444307/), he told me he had opened up tagging to everybody on Flickr, and that people really participated. I decided to try, and it works. **And** you do retain control in case somebody does something stupid (happened to me… maybe once?)

(I could show you pages and pages and pages like that for [my Reboot photos](http://flickr.com/photos/bunny/sets/72157600294706591/).)

So, please, do us a favour (and do me a favour, if you’re taking photographs of me and not [tagging them stephaniebooth](http://flickr.com/photos/tags/stephaniebooth/ “Most of them by me, see?”)).

Go to your [Photo Privacy Preferences page](http://flickr.com/account/prefs/photoprivacy/?from=privacy) (this link will take you there if you’re already logged in to Flickr) and make sure it looks something like this:

Then, add tags like [needstags](http://flickr.com/photos/bunny/tags/needstags) or [needsnames](http://flickr.com/photos/bunny/tags/needsnames) to encourage people to help out. And pass the word around to your friends…

Thanks!

**Update, Friday 21st**

I just realised this is not retroactive. So it only applies to the new photos you upload. If you want to change those permissions on your previously uploaded photos (which I recommend!), you need to [go through the organiser](http://flickr.com/photos/organize/). I’m not sure there is a way to do them all in one go.

Tag: open

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