To target=_blank or not to target=_blank, that is the question!

Question

Should links to external sites set target=_blank? E.g. I am on www.acme.net and have a link to www.otherplace.net, should that link be:

Answer 1

You need to predict what your users want. Use target="_blank" if you expect your users will want to stay on the site.

For example if a blog post has a link in the middle of the post, it makes sense to open that link in a new tab since you are expecting the reader to return to the page and continue reading.

Some people argue that the reader could simply click "Back" when they wanted to come back to the page,

But new webpages will have more links to webpages that have more links, what happens is that the reader has to "Back" a couple of times to get back to your blog post. Either that, or he ends up "lost" in the myriad of linked pages and couldn't come back to your blogpost (you can be sure that no one wants to open History and find your page again when they are "lost", unless there is a big incentive to coming back to your page).