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A connection between two hypertext objects,
used to help people navigate on the world wide web. Generally, a link
takes the form of a highlighted word, phrase or graphic image on a
web page. Clicking on a link then displays the object to which the link
points, known as the target, which can be a different web page, a market
location further down the same webpage or even a program on an ftp
site. For all their simplicity, hypertext links are the key to the web's
power. As well as forming its skeleton, they are an increasingly useful
measure of the relevance of websites. Some search engines,
notably google, rate the importance of pages on the basis of the
number of links to them from elsewhere. BT, a British telecoms company,
attempted to hijack the ownership of the hypertext link idea in 2000,
claiming that it held a patent which predated the invention of the web. |
