# Why would someone design a website to do this?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 19, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733 "2005-08-19T13:04:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/1 "2005-08-19T13:04:25Z")
There’s an insurance company website I use quite a lot for work. Recently, they changed a feature that makes no sense. Before, when you logged out, it would return you to the login page. Now, it shuts down your browser!
I called their web support line and asked about this. I was told by the drone that this was “an executive decision” and that he couldn’t tell me anything else.
Of course, these are the same people who tell me that a particular function would be fixed “in a couple of hours”. Apparently in their world, “a couple of hours” equals several days or weeks.
About 90% of the time, the site works quite well, but the other 10% negates that because it’s usually during a time I need it the most.
---
### Author:  [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/2 "2005-08-19T13:07:28Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> There’s an insurance company website I use quite a lot for work. Recently, they changed a feature that makes no sense. Before, when you logged out, it would return you to the login page. Now, it shuts down your browser!
>
> I called their web support line and asked about this. I was told by the drone that this was “an executive decision” and that he couldn’t tell me anything else.
>
> Of course, these are the same people who tell me that a particular function would be fixed “in a couple of hours”. Apparently in their world, “a couple of hours” equals several days or weeks.
>
> About 90% of the time, the site works quite well, but the other 10% negates that because it’s usually during a time I need it the most.
The only thing I can think of is that they were designing the login feature to spawn a seperate window, and then abandoned it halfway because they realized that it would get slapped down by popup blockers.
---
### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/3 "2005-08-19T13:27:51Z")
Closing down the window removes some chance of using the back button for nefarious purposes. It’s still stupid though.
---
### Author:  [@Fromage\_A\_Trois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fromage_A_Trois)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/4 "2005-08-19T16:14:42Z")
> [@naita](#):
>
> Closing down the window removes some chance of using the back button for nefarious purposes. It’s still stupid though.
Another vote for that… my company’s web access email asks you to close the browser window after you log out, with a message box. Doesn’t force it closed until you click “close” though.
---
### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/5 "2005-08-19T16:39:31Z")
-
-
- I can’t find the specifics, but there was a bug in one of the browsers at one point where the _next_ site you visited could retrieve some data from the previous session (if the session was a certain type). Closing the browser window or tab prevents that.
- Also some sites tell you to do this (my online credit card site does) and warns you to clear the cache files because someone can come along later and look at them and see where you visited and possibly what you did–but there’s no way for them to force that remotely–you have to do it yourself if the browser is not set to dump cache files on close.
~
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/6 "2005-08-19T16:56:34Z")
> [@DougC](#):
>
> -
> -
> - I can’t find the specifics, but there was a bug in one of the browsers at one point where the _next_ site you visited could retrieve some data from the previous session (if the session was a certain type). Closing the browser window or tab prevents that.
>
> - Also some sites tell you to do this (my online credit card site does) and warns you to clear the cache files because someone can come along later and look at them and see where you visited and possibly what you did–but there’s no way for them to force that remotely–you have to do it yourself if the browser is not set to dump cache files on close.
> ~
Every screen containing patient info is secured and does not stay in the cache. The operators of the website don’t know what they’re doing half the time.
When I clicked on the “contact the webmaster” link, I got a 404.
---
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/7 "2005-08-19T17:33:46Z")
Does it close the _WINDOW_ or does it close the _BROWSER PROGRAM_?
If you’ve got two dozen other browser windows open, does it exit out of the program and close _all_ those windows, or just the one you were in for the duration of your bank transaction?
---
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/8 "2005-08-19T17:36:02Z")
Substitute(Post#7, “bank transaction”, “insurance site session”)
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/9 "2005-08-19T17:37:36Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> Does it close the _WINDOW_ or does it close the _BROWSER PROGRAM_?
>
> If you’ve got two dozen other browser windows open, does it exit out of the program and close _all_ those windows, or just the one you were in for the duration of your bank transaction?
When I click on “logout”, a dialogue window pops up and asks, “Are you sure?”
When I click, “Yes”, the browser shuts down. If I have multiple browser windows open, just that one will close.
---
### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/10 "2005-08-19T17:38:33Z")
It has all the earmarks of a non-technological suit trying to say he did something to make the web site more secure.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/11 "2005-08-19T18:12:39Z")
> [@Revtim](#):
>
> It has all the earmarks of a non-technological suit trying to say he did something to make the web site more secure.
I wonder if he has pointy hair?
---
### Author:  [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/12 "2005-08-19T18:18:07Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> I wonder if he has pointy hair?
And uses a smaller font on his laptop so that it weighs less.
---
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/13 "2005-08-19T19:07:07Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#):
>
> When I click on “logout”, a dialogue window pops up and asks, “Are you sure?”
>
> When I click, “Yes”, the browser shuts down. If I have multiple browser windows open, just that one will close.
So why would that bother anyone?
Now if it closed your browser application, not just the current window, _that_ would be annoying as all getout.
Are you by any chance using Internet Explorer under Windows?
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/14 "2005-08-19T19:31:46Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> So why would that bother anyone?
>
> Now if it closed your browser application, not just the current window, _that_ would be annoying as all getout.
>
> Are you by any chance using Internet Explorer under Windows?
I have to use IE at work. It’s annoying becuase I may need to use the browser window again.
I just tried the same site using Firefox. I still get the “Are you sure?” box, but when I click yes, the window goes blank and in the url line it says:
[https://provider](https://provider).(nameofwebsite).com/providergateway?requestedresource=logout
but the window (or tab in this case) does not close. If I try it in a separate window, it does the same thing.
I also tried it in Opera and when I click “Yes” the browser window goes blank with no url window.
---
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/15 "2005-08-19T19:50:19Z")
Reason I asked is that Internet Explorer on Windows has nonstandard behavior (as reflected in people’s terminology in this thread, referring to the individual window as a “browser”) —the OS treats IE as a subset of the OS rather than an application, so one never “quits out of Internet Explorer”; closing an IE window when you have no other IE windows open means you can’t just go Control-N and get a new blank window, you’re no longer “in” Internet Explorer once that window closes.
In a standard application, if a window closes on you, you’re still in the application that spawned it.
Nonstandard or not, it’s unusual to see web designers diss Internet Explorer for Windows. Far more common to see them design around it so nothing else works with their site!
---
### Author:  [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/16 "2005-08-19T20:02:52Z")
I can think of two possibles.
The web folks don’t know how to do what they have been told to do and still keep the browser open. This is true ignorance.
The web folks don’t want to do what they have been told but they can’t directly pick a fight with the boss, so they close the browser and tell him that’s the only way it can be done, hoping the boss will eventually change to their view. This is enlightened ignorance.
---
### Author:  [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/17 "2005-08-19T20:07:23Z")
> [@aahala](#):
>
> I can think of two possibles.
>
> The web folks don’t know how to do what they have been told to do and still keep the browser open. This is true ignorance.
>
> The web folks don’t want to do what they have been told but they can’t directly pick a fight with the boss, so they close the browser and tell him that’s the only way it can be done, hoping the boss will eventually change to their view. This is enlightened ignorance.
What’s odd is that the site didn’t always do this. It just started within the past two weeks.
---
### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/18 "2005-08-19T21:24:26Z")
> [@naita](#):
>
> Closing down the window removes some chance of using the back button for nefarious purposes. It’s still stupid though.
This seems like the correct answer to me. If you’re viewing sensitive information, unless you close the browser window, you can still get back to it. If you recycle the window, it doesn’t matter if you’re logged out, or that nothing is stored in the cache – you can still flip back and see whatever it was you were looking at.
Automatically closing the browser window removes that possibility. Most secure sites will advise the user to close the browser themselves, instead of relying on a script to do it. Personally, I’d just as soon that my bank’s website did it automatically. Save me a click, and all. I’ll use another window afterwards. If I’m on a computer that someone else might conceivably have access to, I don’t want them to be able to get back to a page that contains any private data if, an hour later, I forget that the window I’ve been using to surf the Dope has a page showing my account info and debit-card transactions for the past month, back at the start, accessible with two clicks by anyone interested in seeing what I’ve been up to.
---
### Author:  [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/19 "2005-08-19T22:42:01Z")
> [@AHunter3](#):
>
> In a standard application, if a window closes on you, you’re still in the application that spawned it.
Since when? The behavior you mention is standard on Macs, but almost every Windows application I’ve ever used exits if you close the last window it has open.
---
### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2005, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733/20 "2005-08-20T01:12:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> almost every Windows application I’ve ever used exits if you close the last window
Really?
::sneaks over to girlfriend’s XP box::
::opens a FileMaker database, then closes the database document. FileMaker is still running::
:::opens Excel and opens a worksheet, then closes it. Excel remains running::
::right-clicks a JPEG and has it open in Paint Shop Pro. Closes document. PSP keeps running::
Which ones do you use?
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-would-someone-design-a-website-to-do-this/317733.md?page=2)