Pet peeve
March 27th, 2006
The hyperlink is one of the core elements of good blogging. But I think writers need to be careful how they use this wonderful tool. I encounter a lot of blog posts that make reference to other sites by writing something like, “for example this“. No context or explanation of the link. Not even a mouse-over text (which I have provided in my example). That’s annoying and a waste of time for me as a reader. I know it has become something of a convention, but it should stop.
I fear I may have been guilty of this error in the past, but I vow never to do it again.
March 27th, 2006 at 2:17 pm
Because two great (married) minds think alike, I was just having exactly the same thought yesterday. (You’ll have to show me how to do “mouse-over texts)
March 27th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
I’m trying to construct a business based on the premise that great minds don’t think alike.
March 27th, 2006 at 6:01 pm
When you write your link, use the title attribute: <a title=”short description of what you’re linking to” href=”http://www.example.com/”>like this</a>.
March 28th, 2006 at 2:24 am
I guess I’m guilty of such suspenseful (or irritating) links.
For you Lance, I’ll cut it out.
March 28th, 2006 at 2:29 am
Bill, thanks for that tip. I’ll take my linking up a knotch – when I can be bothered.
April 4th, 2006 at 6:29 am
I think it’s a legacy of Suck. Which did the unreferenced link wonderfully, but made it socially acceptable for those of less skill.