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Click Here Now!
from the we-know-how-the-internet-works dept
We're now pretty far along into the web-based world, and you would think that most people would recognize what a "link" is. However, it appears that a debate is still raging on as to whether or not web-based writing should include the specific call to "click here" when linking to some other webpage. While it's been a common practice in web advertising, trying to entice people to click on an ad, it probably doesn't make very much sense any more in standard web writing. People know what a link is. They know that they can click on it if they want to. Maybe some people just like ordering others around -- even online.
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re:click here
i'm a trainer at a medical institution, and we create a lot of help pages and tutorials for our users. if we don't specifically include "click here" the users don't know where to click(i know this because we get call to the help desk asking how to access the tutorials).
i've tried to discontinue the use of "click here" as a link, but am always asked to "put it back".
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Footnotes next to links
One could include footnotes after their links with the footnotes containing the website address. For example if one wanted someone to go to Yahoo[1] they would link the word and then include the footnote.
I believe that some people just don't want to learn.
[1] Yahoo - http://www.yahoo.com
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Zero Tolerance for Zero Tolerance
I understand the arguments against "click here" instructions: redundancy, commanding tone, implied assumption that your reader is an idiot, etc., but as with any zero tolerance policy, there are times when it's just plain wrong. While the Techdirt article's complaint is valid, sometimes the sentence just flows better if you tell the reader he can click here to see the original reference.
Much of what we read on the web is about the found links, so "click here" language is only natural. If you have to twist your sentence into knots to avoid such phrasing, you've effectively put your effort into doing your reader a disservice. A good writer will avoid the practice when possible, but I must admit that even my own rants will not prevent a living language from evolving to use what works. "Click here" is simply a part of the language of the web, and like it or not, it's here to stay.
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Visually impaired
I never used "click here" links since I knew about the visually impaired.
Quote:
Link accessibility: Some visually impaired web users have speech browsers that have a facility to collate links on a page so the user can tab through them. This helps them quickly assess what a page is all about. But this also means that links will be read out of context. So it is important that the link wording is self-evident on its own. Whereas ‘click here’, ‘next, ‘back’, ‘top’ are all meaningless without further explanation.
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No Subject Given
I dislike seeing "click here" in a news article, but, not as much as seeing some text that is colored as a link in the middle of a sentence. I am used to seeing color in a sentence as highlighting to emphasize a point so I am forever thinking that the author wants me to notice something in particular. Then I realize that the author is just showing me a link to a web page and is not emphasizing. I would prefer to see a sentence followed by an icon of a link or "click" for the link to a web page.
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Links
I like links in color and underlined. It's the pretty much the default internet style. For emphasis there are italics or even /implied/ italics, bold fonts, or a color different from the links (which should all be the same color.)
While we're on the subject, why do many corporations feel the need for flash pages with no html links, not even tiny ones at the bottom of the page? I'm trying to work, cut the crap and show me the data.
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Too much free time indeed!
What an enormous waste of time this debate is. But, while I'm here I might as well take a side.
"Click Here" takes very little effort to add, and it makes any page much easier to navigate for the uninitiated.
That being stated, who cares? It's really not a big deal either way.
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