Cousin Bina writes, “I’m drowning in the midst of writing a research paper on the use of hyperlinks (or lack thereof) by newspaper websites … any opinions on the subject?”
Opinions? On anything web-related? Me?! But, of course. Please feel free to add your views in the comments section.
1. Yes, by all means, hyperlinks to relevant websites should be used on news sites, as more and more content resides exclusively on the web. This is also an exercise in information archival – you have done your research and can prove it by featuring a (hopefully-undead) link to your source(s).
2. Links, if used properly, are informative. If not, they are nothing but nuisances. News websites may sponsor Flash or HTML ads but having keywords in news content linked to advertising is beyond the realm of decency. Keywords or phrases linked to searches is alright, but these searches usually lead to some site trying to sell you something.
3. I believe Washington Post, Yahoo! News and NYTimes are doing an alright job of linking to related information, but not to other sites. I’d rather see a footnote style of URL referencing, in which the footnote lists the URL in its entirety.
Anything else?
