A hyperlink, also called simply “a link”, is a reference in a hypertext document to another document or other resource. It is an integral part of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http) for the World Wide Web, but it is also used in offline documents, such as .pdf (Portable Document File, native Adobe Acrobat format) and .XML (Adobe Acrobat native format). extended dialing). ). The hyperlink can be used to capture content and save it, view it as a separate document, or display it as part of the reference document.

The history of the hyperlink

The history of the hyperlink began in 1965. Theodore Nelson in “The Xanadu Project” transposed the idea of ​​a fictitious microfilm cross-referencing system to the computer world. In a series of books and articles published from 1964 to 1980, the general concept changed from linking entire pages of microfilm to connecting specific lines of computer text.

The main concept was meant to be used on a single computer, however the introduction of the DARPA network transformed the idea into creating links between documents and files stored on multiple networked computers. The idea of ​​connecting parts of a single document via a hyperlink arose independently, but quickly merged with the hyperlink system. Both concepts together were fundamental in the creation of the World Wide Web.

How does a hyperlink work?

A hyperlink has two ends, called anchors, and an address. The link starts at the source anchor and points to the destination anchor. However, the hyperlink name is often used for the source anchor, while the destination anchor is called the hyperlink target. All browsers show somewhat exposed text hyperlinks (usually they mark it with a different color). Clicking on the hyperlink activates and displays the target document.

Hyperlink – Measuring the Network

But hyperlinks are not just the way we navigate the Internet. Life on the Web without search engines is almost impossible today, due to the incredible amount of information on the Internet. Most search engines use a so-called “page rank” to measure which site may contain useful information. This mechanism is mainly based on the popularity of hyperlinks. Although the whole idea of ​​”page rank” is more complicated, its general concept is based on a simple rule: the more hyperlinks point to a page, the higher rank that page gets.

Of course, each hyperlink has a different value, depending on the popularity of the “source” site (this simply means that if your website is the target of a hyperlink placed on a large site like CNet, it has a much higher page rank than a website). site with several hyperlink connections from smaller and less important sites). This process is based on measuring the quality of a hyperlink. Although not perfect, both mechanisms usually work well enough to determine which website has good content and which doesn’t.