There are lots of thing about websites on which people disagree. Whatever you're planning to do, judicious googling will probably bring up plenty of sites recommending it as a good idea and plenty more saying, "Oooh, no-o-o. I don't think so..."

Three-click rule, content below the fold, all the sort of stuff that gets published in books about how to do websites which are almost immediately rendered redundant because of the continual decvelopment of website good practice.

But there is one thing that is almost universally agreed. ("Almost" because I'm sure there are some people out there who disagree, but we need pay no heed to such people.) And it is this.

Links should open in the same window.

Let me put that in a huge font, just in case you were distracted by a seal when you read it:

Links should open in the same window.

It's amazing how many people, when creating websites, are determined to use links that open a new window. Yet, time and time again, whenever web users are polled about what they do or don't like, very high up the list is: links that open in a new window. It makes you wonder whether the people creating these sites have ever actually used the web.

Let's think about this. Let us first of all think about the practicalities. People move between sites. I don't know what the average number of websites visited in one web use session is, but it must be several. It's going to be higher than a couple, isn't it? If opening links in a new window (or tab; take the 'or tab' bit as read from hereon) was a good idea, then most sites would do it. Or at least, a lot of sites. The big sites, the popular sites, the sites that most people use most of the time.

And if that was the case, every time you used the web you would end up with a stack - an ever-increasing stack - of windows. So the simple act of going back to somewhere you had already visited would require you to identify that particular window among all the other windows. Which would become progressively more difficult.

This doesn't happen, ergo most popular sites don't do this, ergo your site shouldn't do this.

And they don't, do they? The big sites. Ebay, Amazon, BBC.

The reason often given for wanting to open a link in a new window is that it keeps the visitor on the original site. Not completely, obviously, but it keeps one hand, one finger on that site, so they can go back to it and you haven't really lost that person. Never mind that, within a very short space of time, they will run out of fingers as they find themselves trapped in a game of virtual Twister.

People know how to get back to your site. They can use their history menus, or if they don't know how the history menu works, they can just punch 'back' endlessly like someone stabbing the 'move forward' button on a bad 1980s video game. Or they can use the same google search - or link from a site they know - that got them to your site in the first place.

All of these are better than simply having some trailing piece of electronic ectoplasm connecting the user to every site they have visited today. Which, as explained above, is self-defeating because it actually makes it harder for the user to find your site again.

Do you really want to annoy your visitors? "Wait, what's this extra window? Let me see.. that's a site I was on 20 minutes ago! Why is that still open?"

Some people like having multiple windows. I usually have at least two, often four or five, open at once. I've got five open as I'm typing this. But that's my choice and I know what is in each window and I decide what each window shows me. I don't want more windows. Nor does anyone else.

How can I make this as simple as humanly possible? Let's think about shops. You go into a shop, buy something, and ask the assistant if there is a cafe nearby. She says yes, there's one round the corner, but if you're going there, could you please tie this rope around your wrist first? Or leave a deposit, such as some money or your bags or a small child.

Maybe that's not such a great example. I'm probably not the only person who would like somewhere to leave my bags and small child while I go for lunch.

Look, just don't do it, okay? No-one else does it. No-one with any sense. People hate it. Stop it.