Links That Stink: Grumbling about the misuse of hyperlinks on news sites.

News Type: Opinion — Seeded on Fri Apr 4, 2008 12:03 PM EDT

Article Source: Slate

excerpt:"When Vannevar Bush first dreamt of hyperlinks back in the 1940s, surely he envisioned something tidier than the link riots that erupt on many of today's Web pages. The extraneous links etched into most Washingtonpost.com stories, for example, make it look as though an insect rode a unicycle dipped in blue ink through the copy before you got there.

Almost any Washingtonpost.com or Nytimes.com news story demonstrates the sites' link-happy tendencies. A good example of the Washingtonpost.com's overkill is this Page One story from Monday about the alleged budget crunch faced by some states. In the first 95 words, the story links Illinois, Cook County, Michigan, New Jersey, California, and San Fernando Valley to Washingtonpost.com landing pages containing general news, video, and audio about those places. No thinking human would ever add these links—obviously, a human has programmed a computer to automatically insert them.

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Scott (Scoop) Butki's Column, All of Newsvine
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Public Discussion (6)

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{"commentId":1655371,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Scott (Scoop) Butki

How could I NOT seed this link about links given my checkered history with links?

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1 vote

#1 - Fri Apr 4, 2008 12:04 PM EDT

{"commentId":1655575,"authorDomain":"onlynow99"}

Angel_C

Oh my....I agree...the links often take me to things I'm not really interested in and distract me. I click thinking I'm going to get more information and it takes me to a gov site or a dictionary....ugg.

{"commentId":1655575,"threadId":"245138","contentId":"1410678","authorDomain":"onlynow99"}

2 votes

#1.1 - Fri Apr 4, 2008 12:51 PM EDT

{"commentId":1655594,"authorDomain":"attreau"}

Andrea A

I love the irony Scott...thanx

{"commentId":1655594,"threadId":"245138","contentId":"1410678","authorDomain":"attreau"}

2 votes

#1.2 - Fri Apr 4, 2008 12:56 PM EDT

{"commentId":1656118,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Scott (Scoop) Butki

You're quite welcome, Andrea.

{"commentId":1656118,"threadId":"245138","contentId":"1410678","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

1 vote

#1.3 - Fri Apr 4, 2008 2:55 PM EDT

{"commentId":1659498,"authorDomain":"basseq"}

John Whittet

Well thought-out links are a wonderful addition to the story, and, I'd argue, the purpose of hypertext, and one of the main benefits of writing on the internet. Of course, those damned automatically-inserted advertising links are the stuff of nightmares.

...make it look as though an insect rode a unicycle dipped in blue ink through the copy before you got there.

This is great imagery, too.

{"commentId":1659498,"threadId":"245138","contentId":"1410678","authorDomain":"basseq"}

1 vote

#2 - Sat Apr 5, 2008 6:38 PM EDT

{"commentId":1659551,"authorDomain":"sbutki"}

Scott (Scoop) Butki

Yes I forgot to add that I really liked the writing on this piece.

I agree - good links can add to stories (which is why I sometimes add links to my own stuff) but indeed they can become nightmareish on news sites.

{"commentId":1659551,"threadId":"245138","contentId":"1410678","authorDomain":"sbutki"}

#2.1 - Sat Apr 5, 2008 7:08 PM EDT

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SCOTT (SCOOP) BUTKI

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Links That Stink: Grumbling about the misuse of hyperlinks on news sites.

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