Quick update on my search for data about opening links in new tabs or windows. • _Everyone_ has an opinion• No one has shared any data• I reached out to a web analytics expert who has been in the field over 20 years who replied, ”I have no idea and hav...

Jason Grigsby

Quick update on my search for data about opening links in new tabs or windows.

• _Everyone_ has an opinion
• No one has shared any data
• I reached out to a web analytics expert who has been in the field over 20 years who replied, ”I have no idea and haven’t seen any data on your question.”
• The expert pointed me to a Slack community full of web analytics and data folks.
• I’ve posted the query there and am waiting to see if anyone has data.

Jason Grigsby (@[email protected])

Quick clarification of my article yesterday: Where are the A/B tests for opening links in new tabs? It’s been nearly twenty years, surely someone has tested this? Anyone? https://cloudfour.com/thinks/where-are-the-a-b-tests-for-opening-links-in-new-tabs/

Front-End Social (front-end.social)

Jason Grigsby

If that Slack community cannot supply me any data, then I’m out of ideas of where to look. I have:

• Searched using Google and Bing
• Searched on Twitter, LinkedIn
• Asked three different AI agents
• Asked on social media
• Wrote two different blog posts and shared on social media again
• Asked a web analytics expert with over two decades of experience and author of multiple books
• Asked the web analytics community (pending)

I'm close to concluding there is no evidence to support the practice

Ethan Marcotte

@grigs I deeply appreciate you doing all this research, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s ultimately where you end up. (At least, *I’d* be surprised if there was any actual data to support the practice.)

Katie Sylor-Miller

@beep @grigs we did run an a/b on opening internal product listing links in a new tab several years ago but I can’t share the data. My guess is lots of places do run tests but can’t speak publicly

Jason Grigsby

@ksylor @beep Is it safe to assume you all followed the data in your approach?

I’d love hard data, but even anecdotal stories like, “Company X tested it and found that it did increase Y," would be better than what I’ve got now.

Katie Sylor-Miller

@grigs @beep yes as much as I hated the results we did follow the data!

Jason Grigsby

@ksylor @beep lol. as much as I hate this answer, I'm happy to find someone that says they tested it and found results instead of just assuming it would have a positive impact. I was beginning to believe this practice was an urban legend that everyone had fallen for.

Ethan Marcotte

@grigs @ksylor Yeah, I’m glad to hear someone’s out there approaching this scientifically. Thanks so much for sharing, Katie!

(I would also bet good money there’s still a healthy number of more…urban legend-y approaches out there, too.)

Katie Sylor-Miller

@beep @grigs yeah absolutely. I actually have a browser extension that prevents opening same site links in a new tab to work around it because I hate it so much!

Jason Grigsby

@ksylor @beep it’s been funny seeing how many responses I’ve received that assert not only that they prefer opening links in new tabs, but that everyone is used to it these days and that it should be the default behavior.

As someone who prefers same tab and consciously choosing when I want a new tab, I’ve been biting my tongue. I don’t want to debate preferences because my preference as a developer doesn’t matter.

Related: I think I need that extension

Ethan Marcotte

@grigs @ksylor The minute I hear a sentence open with “everyone just does”, I lose consciousness briefly, then wake up with several freshly-snapped pencils in my hand, with no memory of how they got there

Melanie

@grigs

Give the user the choice. This is the way.

Jason Grigsby

@beep @ksylor Your pencil budget must be out of control. I hope you recycle the broken ones.

This may be the best use case I’ve heard for mechanical pencil. Like giving a metal bat to Bo Jackson.*

* I don’t follow baseball so my reference is both dated and likely wrong, but I seem to remember him breaking bats

julian

@[email protected] @[email protected] yep, we follow the same UX on our product. If it's an anchor it opens in-page no matter what. The end user's browser settings and behaviour get to choose what to do. Ctrl/middle-click to open a new window, etc.

The only constant is that no matter what behaviour you choose, someone will complain about it and say you're doing it wrong!

Chris Coyier

@ksylor @beep @grigs It would be fascinating to know what was tested.

- Conversion rate?
- Time on site?
- Follow up survey?
- Something else?

I mostly think it would be funny if a company switched all their links to open in a new tab and found their Time on Site metric went up and decided that was Automatically Good.

Katie Sylor-Miller

@chriscoyier @beep @grigs lol there’s only one metric that matters in e-commerce and it isn’t time on site!

Katie Sylor-Miller

@chriscoyier @beep @grigs but your point is solid nonetheless!

Jason Grigsby

@beep @ksylor put your pencils somewhere safe and read this comment https://cloudfour.com/thinks/arguments-for-opening-links-in-a-new-tab-or-window/#comment-15876

Dave Gillhespy 🐯

@grigs if there’s no evidence to support the practice, there’s also no evidence say it’s bad either, right? For me it’s one of those things that I sometimes want and sometimes don’t.

Jason Grigsby

@yodasw16 there is a lot of usability and accessibility studies that point out problems. But UX and accessibility often loses out to perceptions that if you open in a new tab, that you can “keep people on your site.”