The
Paris Pages Experience
Index 
Hypertext
The power of hypertext to associate diverse data types is well known.
It is a key element in data presentation in web sites. Its use is also
very much in the hands of the web site creator(s), and their ability to
make associations between basic data types.
In a hyperlink poor presentation, little or no context is given to the content. The Internaught is obliged to search for the context. This is very similar to querying a database, analysing the response, and then querying again - an iterative process which can be very inefficient. An example of hyperlink poor presentation might be:
Musée du LouvrePyramide - Cour Napoléon, 75001 Paris
40 20 50 50
40 20 58 24
Palais Royal - Musée du Louvre
Châtelet - Les Halles
21, 27, 39, 48, 68, 69, 72, 76, 95
In hyperlink rich presentation additional context is immediately available, and the Internaut can more easily navigate toward the information they seek. Indeed, navigating through a web site can be cast as a new way of querying a database.
Musée du Louvre
Nature of the Hypertext Problem
As the content of a web site grows, the problem of creating and managing the data associations can become difficult, but probably not overwhelming with the right tools. This is because in most cases the growth in the number of hyperlinks is linear with the number of pages.Unfortunately, at this time hyperlinks are mono-valued. Hyperlinks can make only one association per link. Yet sometimes there are several data types to which a word, image, or letter might appropriately point. Dynamic html generation offers one approach to this problem - making hyperlinks based on perceived interests of the Internaut as they navigate through the web site - but is likely not the full solution.
Finally, where to place hyperlinks is very much of an art. Rules linking basic data types are in general easily implemented, but more specific linking between data requires human intervention which will quickly prove inadequate for large content web sites.