From your experience, what is your opinion on how Googlebot deals with
links that incorporate the < target="_blank" > html attribute? In your
opinion, does Google consider this bad practice when it ranks a site?

I am at odds with my own thoughts on this as I can imagine what would
happen if all links on the various sites I visit incorporated this
feature...my screen would quickly fill with dozens of windows.

My specialized product site "Timewise Rally Computers"

http://home.attbi.com/~timewise1/

is already well placed in most search results for related items. I
have no complaints with my current placement. But I just added the
<target="_blank" > attribute to my "Related Links" (and to links on
other pages that lead to the source for Adobe Reader). Have I just
shot myself in the foot?

Thanks in advance for your opinions.

Hi there,

As someone who keenly follows any mention of anything that can
negatively affect Google ranking, I've never heard of target="_blank"
being a problem.

One of my web sites had so many external links opening in new windows,
I started to use javascript to do it automatically, and reduce the
size of the pages, by getting rid of 50 or 100 instances of
target="_blank".

The site has maintained a healthy PR of 6, and I'm certain the target
attribute has not affected in negatively. Just to be sure, I searched
WebMasterWorld for confirmation:

Does it matter if you open the site up in a new window? 

I can't see why any search engine would down-value a link because it
opens in a new window. It's been so common on the web for so long. Has
anyone seen evidence that this is could be going on? It doesn't make
sense to me.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum5/1262.htm

I have since managed to get a number of the links changed but the
webmasters insist on having the links open in a new window. Would
google have a problem with this?

From all I have experienced, having the links to your site open in a
new window won't affect you in the least...

target=_blank is standard html. so it should be no problem for
googlebot.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/4467.htm

If it did affect ranking, enough webmasters would have realised it,
and shared their knowledge. I conducted a thorough Google search and
could not find one instance of anyone believing that the attribute can
affect search engine ranking.

If you are still concerned, just hide that single page from the
Googlebot, by changing the robot tag to:

<META name="robots" content="no index, follow">


Search strategy: various combinations including the phrase
"target="_blank"

Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga

Thank you, Robert. Your answer makes me feel good. In particular:

"...If it did affect ranking, enough webmasters would have realised it"

And thank you, too, for showing WebMaster Links I can use for further confirmation

I'll continue to let the robots index my Link page.

Jack