Even the website
links
that you click on casually were revolutionary when they were first developed. Those links, or hyperlinks, have had a variety of effects on the Internet. This time, we will explain how hyperlinks were born and the effects they have had on the Internet.
What is a hyperlink?
When you are browsing a website, you can click on a link attached to some text or image to quickly move to another page or page on another website. This link is officially called a hyperlink.
Hyperlinks are one of the mechanisms of the hypertext system known as the World Wide Web. Hypertext is a description language such as HTML or XHTML that is used to describe web pages, and embedding a reference to the URL of another document in a hypertext document is called a hyperlink.
Viewers can display the hyperlinked document by clicking or tapping the hyperlinked part of the displayed document. The creation of hyperlinks has made it possible to refer to documents scattered across the Internet.
How hyperlinks were born on the Internet
Hyperlinks were proposed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, who worked at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). He is the man who created the World Wide Web.
Tim proposed hypertext to share documents and data related to particle research with mobile researchers, and in 1990 he developed the hypertext system, which is now known as the World Wide Web. “WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project.”
However, he was not the first to create the idea of hyperlinks, and the origin of the idea is said to date back to 1945. It was a system called “Memex” developed by Vannevar Bush of the United States. This was a microfilm reader/writer, and the information recorded on film could be linked together like human thoughts.
In the 1960s, a research team led by Douglas Engelbart developed the multi-user collaboration system NLS (oN-Line System), which was the world’s first to use hypertext links, mice, displays, etc. has been put into practical use. Later, in 1965, Ted Nelson proposed “hypertext,” and as an advanced version of that, “Xanadu” was proposed in 1967, bringing the concept of hyperlinks even closer to reality. .
In 1987, Apple developed HyperCard. This is a card-type database system and is said to be the world’s first commercial software that implements hypertext.
These are said to have influenced Tim’s idea of the World Wide Web and hyperlinks.
Effects of hyperlinks
As a result of the creation of hyperlinks, various effects have been brought about in our information browsing, gathering, and searching activities. Let’s take a look at the main effects.
Instant access to related information
Unlike printed books and documents, hyperlinks now allow users to quickly access related documents, images, and other information in an associative manner. It is extremely useful to be able to instantly access the information you want through hyperlinks, whereas it previously took days or weeks to access other information.
You don’t have to enter a long URL It takes time and effort to enter a long URL every time you
access a document, but with hyperlinks, you can associate any character string with the URL, so you don’t have to go through the trouble of typing the URL. Instantly access additional information without typing anything.
Hyperlinks
have made it easier to organize and share information
, and they have also become more convenient for information providers. You can categorize and organize your own information as you like, and build information associatively. For example, if you are a company, you can now link all the information your company has, cover it, and provide it to users in an organized manner on your homepage. Another positive effect is that the information organized in this way can now be easily shared.
summary
◆Hyperlink is one of the mechanisms of the hypertext system called the World Wide Web, and it is used to embed a reference to the URL of another document within a document.
◆Hyperlinks were proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. The origin of this idea dates back to 1945.
◆The effects that hyperlinks have had on the Internet include making it easier to access related information, eliminating the need to enter long URLs, and making it easier to organize and share information.