The Look of the Link — Concepts for the User Interface of Extended Hyperlinks

The design of hypertext systems has been subject to intense research. Apparently, one topic was mostly neglected: how to visualize and interact with link markers. This paper presents an overview of pragmatic historical approaches, and discusses problems evolving from sophisticated hypertext linking features. Blending the potential of an XLink-enhanced Web with old ideas and recent GUI techniques, a vision for browser link interfaces of the future is being developed. We hope to stimulate the development of a standard for hyperlink marker interfaces, which is easy-to-use, feasible for extended linking features, and more consistent than current approaches.