Automatically adding URL/TITLE to mailto link

[George Porter]

Thomas Dowling recommended scrapping mailto's and going with CGI to generate
feedback.  This has the very positive effect of allowing you to incorporate
URLs in the email and/or subject line.  Experience at Caltech dictated a
two-pronged approach.  We offer a comments link (CGI) and a mailto on every
page.  Many of the people on campus wish to maintain a mail log,
necessitating a way to BCC or otherwise direct a copy of their comments into
a file, for future reference.  Others are using library or computer lab
workstations where the browser is not necessarily configured with personal
email information, making exclusive reliance upon mailto's impractical.
Interestingly, the majority of the comments/questions are not directly
related to the content of the originating web page.  The combination of
forms and mailto's serves our community's needs well and have been
incorporated throughout the website in a standard footer.

George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science
California Institute of Technology
Mail Code 1-43, Pasadena, CA  91125
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681