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.
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.
Definitely. Even without looking at information like cookies, IP address, it is much easier to filter comment span than email spam.
now that it only opens a new gmail tab it's the first time that it's become useful to me!
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/
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?
On a website that non-techies will see? I would have a contact box for sure.
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...
For me a button to copy the email-address directly to the clipboard would be the best solution.
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!
I usually just right-click the link and select "Copy email address" (chrome) and paste it into gmail.
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.)
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).
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.
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.
We should provide both a form and the mailto link to the users and let them use whatever they prefer.
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.