[thelist] Link Etiquette

[rudy]

> ...  very nicely done links using
> small sized verbs over larger nouns.
> http://captology.stanford.edu/

i disagree, strongly

if you right-click a link to add to favorites, guess what the link will be
called?

populating your list of favorites with links that say "groups" and "events"
is less than useful (although i suppose marginally better than "click here")

my philosophy has always been to make the link text the same as the TITLE
tag of the target

unfortunately, far too many sites misuse this tag

this is generally to their detriment, because a good title remains one of
the most important search engine considerations

for example, this "persuasive" site you mentioned, ron, uses title text of
"Relevant_Groups" and "Events"

better titles, in my most humble opinion, would be "Groups involved in
studying computers as persuasive technology" and "Events, studies,
conferences and courses in the field of persuasive computer technology"

these titles would make ideal link text, too

heck, they are so self descriptive, you wouldn't need extraneous verbiage
such as "find out more about..." or "visit our web page to see..."

and in case you think that few people add a site to favorites by
right-clicking the link that leads to it, guess what text is used if you are
sitting on the page that you want to bookmark?  that's right, the title text

thus, i always try to use the title text as my link text

also, just yesterday, i learned on this very list that google indexes sites
using the link text in linking sites

so, rob, tell your powers that be in order to get better search engine
results, and also to make it easier for people to find links in their
bookmarks/favorites, all links should use title text, and all TITLE tags
should be content-rich


> The 'circling' on the selected link provides a nice 'you are here'
> effect as well.

yeah, i guess, but those links suck mightily

the nav bar is an image map (!) with no alt text, e.g.

      <IMG id=Picture37 height=240 src="nav_events.gif"
            width=115 useMap=#map77 border=0>

and they have alt=" "  on all the hotspots in the map

these guys are who?  stanford?  yikes

and this site was cited where?  on SIGIA-L, a discussion forum for
information architects?

shame!!


rudy