Link rot
Link rot is the process by which links on a website gradually become more irrelevant or broken as time goes on, because the websites that are linked to disappear, change content or redirect to a new location. The phrase also describes the effects of failing to update webpages so that they become out-of-date, full of information that is old and useless, and that clutters up search engine results. This process most frequently occurs in personal homepages that the owner has lost interest in, and is prevalent in free webhosts such as GeoCities, where there is no financial incentive to fix link rot. Several notable web designers, such as Jeffrey Zeldman and the influental web designer magazine A List Apart list various techniques web designers can employ to prevent link rot. One solution is a permalink system, that is, a system that is designed with the fluidity of the web in mind and ensures that links on a server remain permanent and unchanging.
External links Tim Berners-Lee on link rot Jakob Nielsen on link rot
|
|
