Link Lists

One of the first and most useful discoveries to make on the Internet is the hyperlink (or link, for short). Just click on the words underlined in blue and (usually) you are transported to a different page - often on a different website. Probably this is the one feature that gives the worldwide web its massive advantage over the printed word. Books and magazines are linear - the material follows a one-dimensional sequence. By contrast the worldwide web is multi-dimensional: you can follow an idea to wherever it takes you (browsing).

Links do not have to be in the form of words - you can achieve the same result by clicking on graphics such as banners or buttons. And text links do not have to be underlined. In fact, it is fashionable for websites to do away with underlining and allow users to find links by moving a mouse around the page. But if the links are not intuitively obvious it is easy to miss the links embedded in a page when they are not underlined.

Newcomers to the Internet glory in the ability to click on links in a kind of channel-hopping that takes them from page to page and country to country. Similarly, new webmasters (site owners/designers) tend to collect 'useful' links like train spotters collecting engine numbers. In the rush to make lengthy lists of links, the good, bad, indifferent and not very long-lasting are often accumulated on one very long page. This process is also fuelled by 'link popularity'. What does this mean? Some search engines rank websites at least partly by the number and authority of other websites that link to them. So it is in the interest of website owners to contact each other to exchange links. Incidentally, in our experience, at least 50% of these people do not honour their promise to reciprocate with a link on their site.

What are the consequences for users? As a user you are likely to be faced with a bewildering list of links - sometimes with comments - to sites that often contain no more than marketing material. In your hunt for material on employee legislation or opinions on resourcing you are likely to waste a colossal amount of time wading through 'employ our consultancy', 'buy software from us' and 'we are the foremost providers in Chicago' pages. Such time-wasting can be at least frustrating and sometimes more serious for a busy manager or a student trying to get a piece of work finished in time. Quite often link lists make the Internet a poor place to find information.

To get around this problem you need to be discriminating in your use of lists. Try to make a record of those few really good, i.e. selective lists that exist by bookmarking them or adding to favorites so you can go back to them again.

On HRM Guide we have used our personal experience to provide comprehensive but not over-lengthy lists of links to HR-related sites at HR Linksand commercial HR service providers at HR Directory. Apart from a page of general HR links, you will find individual lists for many major countries. In addition there are pages for Journals and Societies. We selected these links for the range and quality of content they provide.

In this series

Introduction

Down to basics

Website addresses

Page addresses

Link lists

HR and onsite searching

Website organization