[pixelpyro]

Love him or hate him he has some good points and considering the age of the article the first 2 are still relevant to your question

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990530.html

[aspiramedia]

Originally Posted by JiRaffe

it just annoys me when links to alternate domains dont open in a new window or tab. surely most businesses would prefer that visitors didn't leave their site

But the user can choose if you don't assign target=_blank. The user is going to leave the site at some point anyway so why stop them? And the back button can be used by the user if they want to get back to the site.

Personally, I have my browser set up to open all links in the same window, regardless of whether they have a target=_blank.

[Dusteh]

I personally like to keep it all in one window - however I have been overridden by both my management and the clients repeatedly on this one.

I think also it depends where the link is nested in the content of your site... if its a little hot link to a manufacturers page hidden in the middle of a paragraph explaining what materials a client uses, you tend to expect that link to open in a popup so that you can quickly look at it and then go back to finishing the paragraph you were reading. Its a big grey area really.