I’ve been thinking deeply about the idea of hypertext lately (reading Vannevar Bush didn’t help), and I’m curious if there’s a standard, convention, or best practice for the actual selection of words to link in a sentence? Additionally, to what extent does the existence of a link and the placement of that link affect the perceived meaning of the underlying text?
Historically, we’ve all hyperlinked the infamous “click here” phrase, and accepted that this is doesn’t make sense without the link. But is this effect even more subtle?
Consider, in fact, hyperlink in the parenthetical aside above from the first sentence in this post. There are four ways, I think, to link this:
I think each one of those changes the sentence, subtly – the existence of the link and its positioning has an actual effect on how the sentence is perceived.
Is the important point of this sentence that…
I read something (as opposed to doing something else with it)
I read Vannevar Bush in particular (as opposed to reading someone else)
It “didn’t help” (as opposed to having some other effect – the “didn’t help” is sarcastic)
The combination of all three
So, the link itself becomes part of the content. Whether it wants to or not, where the link is situated changes the meaning of the words.
Does the hyperlink change the emphasis of the sentence, if you were to read it out loud? Would you mentally incorporate the hyperlink into your verbal presentation of the sentence?