Thinking in terms of hyperlinks in digital history blogs…
How often are they used? Should they be used more often? If they are used, do they complement the information in the post or literally “take the reader away” from the post and original line of thinking? Do we really want to distract the reader with the information in the hyperlink?
I don’t use them nearly as much now as I did when I started blogging. Nevertheless, thinking back to my comment about mouseover popups just the other day, there are times when popups just aren’t enough. In some cases, I turn to Wikipedia for supplemental information, and end up creating a hyperlink. Until recently, however, I realized that I wasn’t taking care in the way that I created hyperlinks. Ultimately, some of the hyperlinks I created were opening the linked information in the same window as my blog post, thereby swallowing-up or dominating the screen. Granted, the reader can navigate backward to the blog post, but is that really something that the author of the post would want? Instead, the hyperlinked information, at least I think in most cases, is information that one would want to supplement what is written in the blog post.
Maybe we do more justice to our blog posts by creating hyperlinks that open in a new window. When the user clicks on a hyperlink, a new window opens, but the new window is secondary in prominence within the window. The blog post retains its dominance as the primary window, but the new window is smaller and more clearly reflects our intent that the information in the new window is supplemental to the post.
Just a thought and something for the ”for what it’s worth” file when it comes to blogging.
Oh, and by the way, if you plan on using the mouseover popup feature I mentioned, just remember, keep the written content of the popup to a minimum. I’ve noticed that a reader has less than 4 seconds to read popup content before the popup closes. Getting the popup to come up again isn’t so easy. A reader has to mouseover another popup, and then return to the popup that he/she was reading to get it to popup again. All-in-all, the “timed” popups can be rather annoying to a reader. Take a look at the popup I created above, in which I was writing about Wikipedia, and you will understand my concerns.
Harry Smeltzer
November 18, 2008
I use hyperlinks in my posts quite a bit. It’s hard to tell how often they get used, as I don’t think WordPress keeps track – I know they SAY they do, but I think they only track the click-throughs to other sites, not to my own posts.
caswain01
November 19, 2008
Many moons ago when I was a content manager for AOL (lofty title for a volunteer position), we drew up some net-etiquette guidelines. One of those included the use of hyperlinks. See if I remember them:
1. Use “open in new window” as a rule. Only open in same window where the linked to site IS the story.
2. Ensure the linked to site logically connects to your stream of thought. Nobody likes to be redirected and have to ask why am I here.
3. Link to the exact page or placemark on the page which is most relevant to the topic. Don’t link someone to the home page of a site, and ask them to navigate to the related information. Or if you do, offer suggested navigation patterns.
4. Don’t steal links. If you found something linked off another side, be nice and at least mention the other site.
That was the mid-1990s. Some of these are quite out of date. And of course we were on the Model “T” Internet (Windows 95, Netscape Navigator, and Dancing Hamsters). Pop up windows referred to the pesky adds.
Jim Beeghley
November 19, 2008
I too use hyperlinks within my blog posts quite often and I always make sure they open in a new window. I also like to post hyperlinks to other posts within my blog to refer readers back to my posts. Keeps them reading and commenting.
cenantua
November 19, 2008
Craig, Even if they were created for the “Model ‘T’ Internet,” those listed “laws” of hyperlinks sound reasonable enough.
cenantua
November 19, 2008
Jim,
Thanks for commenting… and certainly, the “keep them reading and commenting” outcome of opening hyperlinks in new windows seems to fit right in with the AOL “hyperlink laws.”
Harry Smeltzer
November 19, 2008
Help me out, guys. How does one make sure that a link opens in a new window?
cenantua
November 19, 2008
Sure Harry.
In your edit mode of writing a post, of the two tabs (“Visual” and “HTML”) that appear in the upper right-hand side above the content view area, you should…
1) Select “Visual.”
2) Highlight a word in your post to which you want to attach a hyperlink.
3) Select the icon that looks like a chain-link.
a) In “Link URL” put in the http address of the site you want to link to.
b) In “Target” you will see two options only, select “Open link in a new window.”
4) Click the “Insert” button on the lower right-hand corner.
That will do it.
Harry Smeltzer
November 19, 2008
Thanks Robert! I never noticed that option before!