Ask HN: Is there any point in using mailto: links any more?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3674414

by jwilliams • 14 years ago

27 30 14 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I know that you can get a mailto handler for web clients, but from what I've seen not many people use them.

We're moving to an approach where we have a contact form. This doesn't appear to work as well - our guess is that people don't like filling in their email on the web (it's also an extra step).

Does anybody have any hard data on usage of the mailto? We've done some A-B, but don't have enough data to draw out anything significant.

josscrowcroft• 14 years ago

Personal feelings of course - not tested. I have a contact form on my site... but I use mailto links all the time as a reader - I have a protocol handler set up to use gmail by default and I think this will become more common.

I say yes, but maybe employ some tasteful iconography (stick an email icon right before or after the link, such as 'icon-envelope' from here: http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/base-css.html#icons - maybe use CSS :before or :after classes.)

ryanpetrich• 14 years ago

On Chrome, GMail now asks if it can assume control of mailto: links after login.

shingen• 14 years ago

Short answer: provide both, user choice

neilk• 14 years ago

Providing an explicit choice is rarely a good idea.

They just want to contact you somehow, they don't want to click mailto: and then have to configure their browser or something.

A solution might be to provide a contact form, but in the header of the form also note that it will send email to someone@somewhere.com. Make the email address a link, and savvy users will know to click on it.

switz• 14 years ago

On my personal blog I use `mailto:` as I feel most people visiting either have mailto setup or know a mailto link when they see one and avoid it.

On a website that non-techies will see? I would have a contact box for sure.

jwilliams• 14 years ago

Yeah. Definitely the later.

The trigger for the question was a very strange support request -- turns out OS X Mail Setup was launching and the user was very confused...

darxius• 14 years ago

It is usually quite easy to spot mailto: links, and hovering over the link will usually make it extra clear (at least in Chrome, in the bottom left corner a small box with the url's location is displayed).

I usually just right-click the link and select "Copy email address" (chrome) and paste it into gmail.

ard0r• 14 years ago

We have both on the contact page, and we get more people filling out the form than emailing us, which I guess is surprising but the contact form is right there whereas the email link is a click away.

I really prefer them to fill out the form, because when we can associate their message with their browser, cookie, and IP address, I can get all kinds of useful information eg whether they came from an AdWords link, how many visits to the website they've made, whether they've ever clicked through a newsletter, their IP address (which I can use for geolocation), whether JS is enabled, etc etc.

I also find that it's easier to block spammers via the contact form than the email link, because of all this information I know about them.

chalst• 14 years ago

I also find that it's easier to block spammers via the contact form than the email link

Definitely. Even without looking at information like cookies, IP address, it is much easier to filter comment span than email spam.

libria• 14 years ago

On Windows machines, mailto: links set off my spidey sense because accidentally clicking it may initiate an Outlook setup dialog that causes churn. Windows folks who just haven't bothered to set this up may prefer a contact form or a clickable pre-selected input box, e.g. http://jsfiddle.net/V6XAQ/

brandly• 14 years ago

Quick, painless, and makes mailto useful: http://updates.html5rocks.com/2012/02/Getting-Gmail-to-handl...

zxoq2• 14 years ago

Is there any way to detect if such a handler is registered? So you can use mailto: then and otherwise just make it a text field?

yashg• 14 years ago

mailto: links are definitely useful. At least I get to see who I am emailing. A contact us form somehow turns me off. I may want to send an attachment or something more which I can send using my own mail client.

We should provide both a form and the mailto link to the users and let them use whatever they prefer.

b0rsuk• 14 years ago

Not only that, but the user is automatically getting a copy of his mail (Sent). This is not a given with some custom form.

dybber• 14 years ago

I would never use a contact form if I can avoid it, I like to have a copy of my outgoing mail in its original form.

For me a button to copy the email-address directly to the clipboard would be the best solution.

cweiske• 14 years ago

I prefer mailto links, since I keep a copy of the mail I send to you. Using my mail program also means I can CC and sign the mail. Plus, I'm not restricted to a 30x5 character sized text area to type my letter in. And I've got your email address in case I need to ask you more. All plusses for mailto:.

What's probably a problem is that many people use web mail clients, and the browsers do not have a standard way to assign mailto: handlers to websites.

digitalengineer• 14 years ago

We use a little 'Ask Us' form in every footer where people can drop a question. I was surprised how many people actually use it. (Because there's a captch attached to it. Yeah, I was lazy). Still, the e-mail is right next to it but people prefer the little 'Ask Us' form. http://royaltyfreemodels.com/

tikhonj• 14 years ago

It's funny you should ask this just now--Chrome has recently started to offer the option of opening mailto links in GMail. I think it presents this option as soon as you open GMail, so pretty much anybody using GMail on Chrome will be familiar with it. I suspect this means mailto links have suddenly become much more practical for a larger number of people.

Buzaga• 14 years ago

This option appeared to me, but I didn't understood what they meant with it and opted no... I wonder if it confused other people too

fidrelity• 14 years ago

i'm totally one of theses people. whenever i accidentally clicked on a mailto link some crappy tool popped up and wanted my attention.

now that it only opens a new gmail tab it's the first time that it's become useful to me!

diwank• 14 years ago

I agree. mailto: links firing Thunderbird for people who don't use it is so not cool.

Actually, I think the mailto: protocol has a lot of potential but has been mostly neglected by browsers. Only recently did Chrome announce the support for using gmail as an alternative for opening mailto: links.

Anyway, I decided to do something about it and cooked up a small snippet [1] that opens up a modal window every time a user clicks on a mailto link and lets him send a mail via MailerJS [2]. Just paste the snippet in your web page and skadooosh, all mailto: links get so much more awesome!

Might also write a Firefox extension that enables using gmail for mailto: links when I get some time.

[1] https://github.com/creatorrr/Snippets/blob/master/mailtofix....

[2] http://mailerjs.com/

ranit8• 14 years ago

> Might also write a Firefox extension that enables using gmail for mailto: links when I get some time.

I see the option to register mailto: protocol with Gmail and Yahoo mail in my Firefox profile. Is it there from the beginning or it only appears after visiting them?

gatlin• 14 years ago

I have this little service that I haven't figured out how to monetize, FlyerMe.info. Without sounding like an ad, it lets you print the heading of your flyer and a QR code and scanning the code takes you to a mobile-friendly version of the flyer (text and all). At the bottom I use mailto: so you can mail yourself the link from your phone.

I thought this was acceptable because I think most people have their email clients set up on their phone (unlike many people with no desktop email software).

AznHisoka• 14 years ago

Email forms are a turnoff. In the back of my mind, it feels like the message will most likely end up in some black hole.

bootload• 14 years ago

"... We're moving to an approach where we have a contact form. This doesn't appear to work as well ..."

I'm no fan of forms.

An email address I can rely on my email program to work, not so with forms that depend on 3rd party code/design. Email just works. On a deeper level though forms just seem to get sucked into nothing. There is no destination so it doesn't feel like you are contacting someone directly.

hmgauna• 14 years ago

This is a little off topic, but... As a matter of fact, Chrome is not the first browser to offer that mailto config. At least Opera and Firefox already had (a long time ago) a way to customize the mailto handler to open a given client / webmail client. However, that process was way to difficult and obscure for most users. So -and given they have a special interest in it- Chrome became the first ever browser to come up with a frictionless webmail setup (only for Gmail, obviously). Anyway, as others stated here, it is not so clear for users: I had my girlfriend asking me what that message meant, and I was thinking it twice before answering her.

Besides the excursus, as tikhonj said, if that idea becomes a trend, it could modify a bit the landscape. I feel comfortable when I can choose.

A problem I had with forms is that people may and will eventually mistype their address. And, from a customer relation management point of view, that is a very bad thing, as you will never be able to get back to the user (if you are not asking for another way to contact, and even in that case, you could not get back to them). On the other hand, an email has always a sender.

It's also a fact that an email could easily become unnoticed in the spam folder. That's why I've found myself wondering if there could be room for a service that would fill the gap between both solutions (and be convenient for the sender and the receiver).

Regards!

pfanner• 14 years ago

I like mailto on websites, since I don't like contact forms so much. When I click on the mailto links, Thunderbirds open and I can start writing, very comfortable.

Ask HN: Is there any point in using mailto: links any more?

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