A friend recently was ranting about the Back button on a browser and that it often messes up pages he visits. A counterpoint argued that a good developer is always prepared for users to hit the back button and always programs to handle the user trying to go back in time.
As a web developer, I definitely agree that the Back button is a great nuisance. It also creates a layer of uncertainty in where your user is/came from when they arrive at a page. Anytime a user needs to be able to get back to page they came from, there should be an easily accessible link/button, so is the Back Button really needed?
I could foresee a lot of malicious intent if browsers didn't have a Back button. Maybe the true problem is how overused or available it is.
Maybe one alternative would be to present the user with a new tab for every new site (domain) they navigate to and remove the Back button. Each website is now responsible for the navigation around it's own site, yet if you ever pull up something you didn't actually want, you can easily close the tab and you're back at the site that sent you there. It's really just your web history presented different, but it would take up a shit load of memory (depending on the sites you had pulled up). I'm sure other problems would come from such a strategy as well.
I can't really think of a method that would keep you in full control of web surfing yet remove the Back button entirely. Feels like it might be a necessary evil that developers just have to accept and work around.
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