Is the Hyperlink Dead?

Nazca Lines- Peru (500 BC)

Very often they are.

If you've been writing on the internet for the past 25 years, the hyperlinks that we've put into the text probably no longer work. This is why I have been stopping using hyperlinks in my work. I only use them if I can be certain that the link will be permanent. For example, I will link to a piece of art only from the museum or collection that holds it. This is not to say that this link won't change in the future, but it is less likely to change.

We think of online videos as being permanent, but they can be taken down at any time. We can assign it a permanent hyperlink in the Internet Archive, but that doesn't typically upload the video itself. Even the Archive itself is somewhat impermanent.

What we have realized in Ukraine is that the servers that store most of our digital artifacts are in buildings that no longer exist.

As Stewart Brand wrote In the late 1990s (on the more indelible longnow.org), it is Written On the Wind.