I have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to web development. There’s unexpected pop-up windows, auto-play music, sites that tell me what browser I should use to best view its pages, resizing the browser window, screwing with my browser scroll bar, PDF links that aren’t labeled as PDF links… I could go on and on and on. Indeed, some people have taken the time to list many similar grievances (like here and here).
One that I rarely see mentioned but really bugs me is mailto links. These little feckers are supposed to open up your e-mail client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird) and have a readily-addressed blank message waiting for you to fill out. Problem is, I don’t use an email client. I use this thing called Gmail, and I’m guessing there’s a few dozen other people with a preference for web-based email too.