... even part of the time.
AnchorDesk is a daily column from ZDNet. It deals with a wide variety of computer and internet related issues, including, more often than not, new products and what to buy. I receive AnchorDesk via e-mail and read the blurbs on the numerous mini-columns that comprise it, clicking into the web for the real thing if I find something that attracts or interests me. The columns always invite reader comments. These I usually don't read, basically because there are so many that it's a daunting and time consuming task.
Rather serendipitously, in early May of this year deep linking, and whether we, the readers, should be required to read online ads was the subject of one of the columns. This time I read many of the comments. Many of these said little more than the predictable (which may well be true of me in this column as well) but some of them were quite perceptive. One reader, for instance, joked that perhaps deep linking would be banned from search engines as well, leading to an interesting situation:
What about search engines? I suppose they will all be forced to link only to the home page as well: "There's a page SOMEWHERE on this site that has the information you're looking for. Good luck finding it."
Another reader expanded on that message with a plausible, if still ridiculous suggestion:
Actually, maybe this is the way around the problem. Yes it does require one extra click, but that is little effort in the grand scheme of things. Instead of providing a deep link, just provide a very specific google search (or any other search site) that brings up that particular site. In fact, you could create your own search engine to make sure that the specific URLs were included, and then reference the appropriate page in your own search engine. Maybe you could even have the search page automatically redirect to the specific page so you never end up seeing the search page at all. Or how about a program that, when the user clicks, brings up the correct site and the main page of the site at the same time, and then closes the main sites page, just so the offended company will get enough hits on their main page to feel good about themselves.
And just in case we didn't get the point, he concluded:
This whole issue is such garbage!
The thread continued for more messages than I was willing to continue reading, but many comments were both interesting and well written. One, however, (sorry, I can't seem to find it to link to it and have to use my saved text) stood out among the rest. Among all the complaints over advertising forcing itself on the reader, one reader wrote about the fact that the vast majority of AnchorDesk material relates to product promotion. Quite succinctly he wrote:
Who needs to worry about linking ads to deep web content. The content itself is the ad. Great illustration of this.
Well put.
Go to: More than enough to keep the courts busy, or
Go to: How Deep is My Linking?