A Taxonomy of Links

A few days ago I was getting my knickers in a twist about link taxonomies. I was thinking they needed to be made more intelligent. Does anyone else ever get that feeling that you’re using a teaspoon to dig a hole, when someone else has a JCB?

Claire Harrison has written a great article in which she classifies different types of links. It’s rhetoric and semantics again, and it works for me. Here is the table.


Link
Primary Function
Examples
Authorizing
 Describes an organization’s legal, formal policies, contact information, etc. that authenticate the site and its content.
  • About Us
  • Customer Service Policies
Commenting
 Provides opinion about the site and/or its content.
  • Press Releases
  • Testimonials
Enhancing
 Provides more factual information about site content by offering greater detail or painting the "bigger picture."
  • Guidelines for Membership
  • Site Map
Exemplifying
 Provides a specific example of content within a broader category.
  • Future Events
  • Today’s Horoscopes
Mode-Changing
 Moves users from the reading mode to one that requires a different kind of activity.
  • Online Survey
  • Shopping Cart
Referencing/Citing
 Provides information that "informs" or supplements the site’s content.
  • Bibliography
  • Related Links
Self-Selecting
 Allows users to narrow a search by making choices based on their age, sex, geographical location, life situation, personal interests, and so on.
  • For Seniors Only
  • Your Local Chapter

I’m not sure how well this works for blogs. There’s the hoary old chestnut of trackback vs comment. I’m increasingly feeling that trackback is a means to link to a person in a conversation, and standard href stuff is a means to link to content. Sort of. And in terms of further links classifications I’d probably want to add ones for Community (links that show who you listen to, e.g. blogrolls); Mechanics (links that point to e.g. Movable Type, Technorati, Blogstreet …). Maybe more. Or different? Anyone got any ideas?

April 06th 2004 | | Notes on , ,


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