Pet peeve for the morning (actually it's been going on far longer than that):

A lot of people browse the net in ways not intended by the web developer. Specifically, instead of surfing on a liniar path (o---o---o---o) they'll often open a link in a new window to start a new cognitive thread. This happens all over the place, but it especially happens on search engines, where the user wants to look at a returned link, but doesn't want to cover the search results page.

Great. All well and good. Some obnoxious folks (like me, sadly) will try to enforce this behavior on the reader, by taking the links they feel should be cognitive departures, and making them open in new windows by specifying the 'target' attribute in the HTML tag. You'll notice that on my site because nearly every link that isn't to another page on my site I make open in a new window. (sidebar: Do you hate this? If so, let me know. If you like it, let me know too.)

Okay, great. the real problem is when people use javascript to open a new window with just the right size and properties (I do this on AOLiza, and CNN and ABCnews.com do it all over the place). The problem there is if you the user try to open the link in a new window, ignoring the fact that it's not a 'real' link, but is a javascript function that will have the net result of popping up a new window, the whole thiong fails miserably, you getting a big blank window and a javascript error.

Okay, long spiel. Moral please? There should be a different affordance, (a different look indicating the function of an item) for links that will spawn new windows. I haven't the foggiest idea what would work. Of course, it would have to come at the browser level, not the site level, because it would need to carry over into all sites, or else we're just talking about another design ideosyncracy on another little site, which is the last thing we need. Maybe if popup links looked like other links, but were italicized, indicating that you don't need to actively open it in a new window: it's going to do it anyhow.

Just a thought. I'm certain there ae more fundamental changes that need to be made to the web. I figure it's likely there will eitehr be a standards overhaul in about 4 years or these things will be fixed when content shifts to the next-big-thing.