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.
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
@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.)
@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
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.
@ksylor@grigs@beep I can kinda see how if a person is in SHOPPING MODE they might actually like having a bunch of tabs open. Not data, but I could see it.
@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.
@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!
@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.
@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
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