You know where you can stick your mailto links
Tuesday, September 4th, 2007I have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to web development. There’s unexpected pop-up windows, auto-play music, sites that tell me what browser I should use to best view its pages, resizing the browser window, screwing with my browser scroll bar, PDF links that aren’t labeled as PDF links… I could go on and on and on. Indeed, some people have taken the time to list many similar grievances (like here and here).
One that I rarely see mentioned but really bugs me is mailto links. These little feckers are supposed to open up your email client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird) and have a readily-addressed blank message waiting for you to fill out. Problem is, I don’t use an email client. I use this thing called Gmail, and I’m guessing there’s a few dozen other people with a preference for web-based email too.
I’d actually like to see a breakdown of web-based email users vs. email client users. I assume web-based email is much more popular these days, primarily because it’s so much more accessible. Your emails are stored online and you can get at them from any computer with a connection. Additionally, not having a client means one less piece of software installed on your machine, which can’t be bad
So when I need to get in contact with those faceless folk behind a website and I’m presented with a mailto link, it’s 50/50 as to whether I’ll even bother anymore. A simple contact form is a far better approach, and has the added benefit of not revealing your email address to the spambots.
Oh, and yes, I’m aware that I don’t have a contact form on this site. It’s on my to-do list, promise.