Hyperlinks please
On the eve of the US election, the New York Times published a punchy one paragraph editorial that deftly deployed hypertext to expand on its message. In case you missed it:
You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to those who know him best. He tried to subvert an election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences. Mr. Trump’s corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It’s his whole ethos. He lies without limit. If he’s re-elected, the G.O.P. won’t restrain him. Mr. Trump will use the government to go after opponents. He will pursue a cruel policy of mass deportations. He will wreak havoc on the poor, the middle class and employers. Another Trump term will damage the climate, shatter alliances and strengthen autocrats. Americans should demand better. Vote.
Jason Kottke delighted in the editorial’s trenchancy:
What makes this piece so effective is its plain language and its information density. This density is a real strength of hypertext that is often overlooked and taken for granted. Only 110 words in that paragraph but it contains 27 links to other NYT opinion pieces published over the last several months that expand on each linked statement or argument. If you were inclined to follow these links, you could spend hours reading about how unfit Trump is for office.
A simple list of headlines would have done the same basic job, but by presenting it this way, the Times editorial board is simultaneously able to deliver a strong opinion; each of those links is like a fist pounding on the desk for emphasis. Lies, threat, corruption, cruel, autocrats — bam! bam! bam! bam! bam! Here! Are! The! Fucking! Receipts!
How the links are deployed is an integral part of how the piece is read; it’s a style of writing that is native to the web, pioneered by sites like Suck in the mid-90s. It looks so simple, but IMO, this is top-notch, subtle information design.
David Gruber, equally delighted, added his commentary:
And now, 20+ years into writing Daring Fireball, I don’t really think of writing in hypertext as a special form of writing. It’s just writing. It’s non-hypertext writing that now feels slightly weird to me. Limiting.
It’s not that different a thing, being able to link words within one’s prose to other pages on the web. But it is different. Being able to apply italics or boldfacing to words is somewhat more expressive than being limited to un-styled plain text. Talented writers don’t need italics, but they can make good use of it if it’s available.1 Being able to add hypertext links to certain words is like that, but so much more powerful. Italic and bold emphasis are information-density additives. But as Kottke observes, used deftly, hypertext links are an information-density multiplier.
The way I’ve long thought about it is that traditional writing — like for print — feels two-dimensional. Writing for the web adds a third dimension. It’s not an equal dimension, though. It doesn’t turn writing from a flat plane into a full three-dimensional cube. It’s still primarily about the same two dimensions as old-fashioned writing. What hypertext links provide is an extra layer of depth. Just the fact that the links are there — even if you, the reader, don’t follow them — makes a sentence read slightly differently. It adds meaning in a way that is unique to the web as a medium for prose.
I do like a light dusting of hyperlinks. Too many, and it can quickly become overwhelming. I’m the kind of person who reads footnotes in books, and I generally tend to follow hyperlinks in web content if they are included.
With ebooks, hyperlinks enhance the reading experience. To name one example, Shoshana Zuboff’s The Age of Surveillance Capitalism deployed links to source material to good effect. I now mostly read ebooks as it’s much easier to follow links than in physical books.
It’s irritating when you see an allusion to something that exists on the web and there’s no link to it. It smarts of thoughtlessness towards readers, or worse, laziness. Do the work and make it easy for us to find whatever it is you’re referencing. It’s the web, the ability to hyperlink is one of the best things about it.