hypertext, post Xanadu

Ben Hammersley.com: of Cigars and hypertext

I’m stuck by the meanings of the links themselves. Where they are, what they link to, the words they link with and so on all add an enormous amount of information to the piece. Links can be subtle, ironic, funny, informative, maudlin, depressing, even designed not to be followed at all. The browser status bar can be a major source of semantic meaning, without even following a link through.

sometimes link is just a link. to mangle a metaphor . . . . sometimes you can get the joke by seeing where a link would take you. Other times, you need to follow the gesture . . . . depends on how curious you are, how much time you have, how well your host has prepared you . . . . .