It’s a sad reality that we have to consider spam grabbers in this best practices discussion. I’ll have to think about a solution for that.

Spam aside, I still think it’s best to spell out and link the email address in full. (Your example #2.)

My biggest pet peeve is when I’m using my home PC. I HATE email links that do not display the full email address. Because when I click it, it launches Outlook Express. And I don’t USE Outlook Express at home–I use web-based email. So it wastes my time launching a program that I haven’t set up and don’t use–all just to get to the email address. I’d prefer copy and pasting it to my web-based email program.

That’s a good tip about hovering over the link to see what hides behind it, though. I’ll try that in the future. Maybe it will cut down some of my email address link rage! :)

@angiewarhol

P.S. Not sure what I think about your style decision to eliminate periods after email or web links that end a sentence. I understand your reasoning, but it sort of makes my stomach turn. But, it could be an acquired taste!

that’s a variant example for sure, and while it shows (to the observant) that it’s gonna be an email link, I think it falls short of best practice (unsure, as you suggested) because of Jules’ comment above.

Jules reminds us that people don’t always work on their ‘own’ computer and may want to know or record the email address – so if we don’t show the address, we don’t help those people. (And hovering and right-clicking to discover the address is an advanced step.)

Thanks for stopping by.

The example would be “You can Email Wedge to request a quote.” and adding the email hyperlink to the words “Email Wedge”. By doing this, the user understands that they hyperlink allows them to email you, yet your actual email address isn’t exposed in text.

–Sean
http://www.intranetexperience.com

I would like to say that of the three correct ways to present email addresses, I’m not keen on the second one. I think it’s important to be able to see the whole email address. My email pop-up thing doesn’t work properly and so email links are useless to me – I need to be able to see and copy the actual address into my own email system. I’m sure this could also be a problem for people who aren’t using their own computers. Just a thought :)

I don’t like the jon at jontusmedia dot com approach of spelling things out. Users want to click and go.

What’s your take on contact forms ?

Best wishes, Jon