Date: Friday, April 19, 2002 8:12 AM
From: Leonard Henderson ([email protected])
Subject: Deep Links Return to Surface
I am writing in response to the article "Deep Links Return to Surface," April 18, 2002. I do a lot of deep-linking to present specific documents to my readers. Many of the links took me hours to find, even when I knew generally where (and how) to look. (Today's) news stories usually disappear from front pages tomorrow, with no way to ever find them again from the front page.
Running some pretty big sites myself, I travail for ways to make my stuff easily findable, while keeping front pages compact and interesting. I am sorry to say that many sites care very little about making "yesterday's news" findable.
I think the single most important thing is that every page has a way to go to its own front page. That way, a linked page that really interests the reader can take him to the front page for that site.
The idea of forcing every link to go to a site's front page, with no way to then navigate to the content I want to promote for that site, is insane. An analogy would be requiring a person to read the whole phone book before he could dial a specific number.
Hyperlinking is what the Internet is all about. We are all already on "information overload." Having to wade through the front page of some prima donna's website, just to find one item from two years ago, is ridiculous. Several years ago, I was assembling a website for an artiste who was worried sick about people stealing his "art." I plainly told him that if he wanted to retain ownership of his stuff, he dang sure doesn't want to put it on the Internet.
