Hyperlinks and the Internet

Hyperlinks are certainly one of the most revolutionary features of the Internet. The ability to “hop” from page to page, from source to source, and even (on a smaller level) within parts of a single document has made information access more flexible and less hindered by traditional linear limitations.

When the Internet first began to creep into public consciousness, the nature of the hyperlink and the way it was able to shape our quest for information and “reformat” our reading habits became a popular topic of conversation among theorists. Some argued that the non-linear opportunity provided by hyperlinks could eventually change the very way we approached texts of all sorts and the way we interpreted the world.

Whether that has happened is a subject for debate. What is certain, however, is that hyperlinks (or, as we now call them “links”) did become a critical aspect of information location and retrieval.

We can direct our online meanderings by links to different locations, making every website a directory of sorts and giving every webmaster an opportunity to become a “tour guide” to valuable information.

Deficiencies
Links are still an important means of finding information, although they generally don’t have a strong influence until one first locates the site providing the links. Well-known directory sites and even search engines are an example of this.

If one should go to Google to search for “social bookmarking,” he or she will encounter a series of links to various sites referencing the term. The links are the pathway to information.

The improvements in search engine technology have made links as a direct reference source less important than they probably once were, in some ways. However, search engines still rely upon them as a means of assessing the relative value of sites. Thus, although we don’t hop from link to link in search of information as much as earlier users, links still form a significant part of the Internet’s underlying infrastructure.

As a standalone means of gathering information, linking patterns alone are inherently limited. They may provide for an interesting non-linear progression through information, but they do a poor job of directing users to specific materials efficiently unless they are buttressed by some larger and more convenient structure, such as a search engine or directory.