The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 4 (of 5)

A "Next" Button Please

I find it inconvenient that web browsers do not have previous/next buttons. These buttons would be most useful for search engines. I hate clicking on the little numbers or the little previous/next words. Browsers should be made to support result sets.

Maybe this is not a browser issue. Maybe it is a flaw in the design and layout of the web page. Having to scroll to the bottom of a page is bad enough.

All i'm asking for is a BIG and I mean BIG button to push so I don't have to fiddle around with little numbers and tiny words. Oh and put the darn things at the top and bottom of the page instead of only at the bottom because the first few results pages are usually garbage anyway. (The "top and bottom" thing is why browsers need to support some kind of result set, so they can use toolbar buttons for this type of thing.)

Ok, I'm done complaining... for now.

Speak N' Spell
Friday, January 30, 2004

I think there's some code you can put in your web pages to actually make the FOWARD button that's built in to the browser work.

www.MarkTAW.com
Friday, January 30, 2004

I always thought the forward button worked only with the history.

Friday, January 30, 2004

Opera 7 got a "forward" feature, where it picks what it thinks is "next page" on a web-page. And it works, too!

Litago
Friday, January 30, 2004

I must be thinking of this:

http://www.marktaw.com/temp/opera.jpg

This stuff is inside the HTML document's HEAD

<link rel="home" href="http://www.opera.com/" title="Opera front page"/>
<link rel="help" href="http://www.opera.com/support/"/>
<link rel="next" href="/download/"/>

(and more)

It seems Opera is the only browser that does this of the big 3.

www.MarkTAW.com
Friday, January 30, 2004

Btw, this is in the HTML 4 spec.

www.MarkTAW.com
Friday, January 30, 2004

It works in Google too, even tho google doesn't do a ref "next".

Opera probably scans a page for a "next" reference.

Litago
Friday, January 30, 2004

Mark: In Mozilla, View->Show/Hide->Site Navigation Bar->Show Only As Needed (or as you prefer).

Chris Hoess
Friday, January 30, 2004

All browsers have a "back" button that will take you back a page.

Going forward is a little more difficult since you haven't been there yet, so the browser would have to parse the web page and figure out the link to the next page. Supposedly Opera does this but I haven't tried it.

Arrogant Prick
Saturday, January 31, 2004

Not really answering the original question, but here's more information on the "next" link feature mentioned by www.MarkTAW.com:
http://diveintoaccessibility.org/day_9_providing_additional_navigation_aids.html

The link tags for next and previous are defined in the HTML spec, but the usage is left to the discretion of the browser. Internet Explorer seems to ignore them, but browsers like Mozilla and Opera display the links in a separate navigation toolbar (not using the primary forward/back buttons in the browser, which only use the browser's history). Text-only browsers also typically display these links (which is especially useful if the navigation within the page is displayed using images).

Philip Dickerson
Saturday, January 31, 2004

I'd recommend anyone implementing Link tags, if nothing else it provides a nice way of understanding the structure and flow of a site as you write it.

And for those lucky people using Mozilla and Opera they'll get even more benefit.

Simon Lucy
Saturday, January 31, 2004

I'm pretty sure the Google toolbar does this for search results.

James Ussher-Smith
Saturday, January 31, 2004