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When are appropriate situations to use the target="_blank" attribute on your hyperlinks?
Edit:
To clarify, I know the syntax will open a new browser window. What I am asking is when is it appropriate to do so?
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Anchor links1 may have a target attribute which controls what happens when that link is clicked. One of the possible values of that attribute is _blank , which tells the browser to open a new window (or tab, if that's the user's preference) when that link is clicked.
target="_blank" is a special keyword that will open links in a new tab every time. target="blank" will open the first-clicked link in a new tab, but any future links that share target="blank" will open in that same newly-opened tab.
You can use the target="_blank" attribute if you want your users to click on a link that opens up a new browser tab. The target="_blank" attribute is used inside the opening anchor tag like this.
It looks like target="_blank" is still alright. It is listed as a browsing context keyword in the latest HTML5 draft.
Whenever you want to annoy users.
More seriously, since this opens a new window/tab, it should be used sparingly, in my opinion.
Most modern browsers have some option (ie: middle-click on hyperlink) to do this for you, so I personally prefer allowing the user to handle this themselves.
However, if you are working on something where there is a non-technical reason for this, such as a sales-oriented site, it's often desirable to open a product brochure in a new window, or something along those lines. However, just be aware that overdoing this leads to my pseudo-joke response above....
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