Book Review Sparks Online Conversation about Hyperlinks

By Jason Boog 

lauramiller.jpgOver at Salon.com, book critic Laura Miller (pictured) created a sprawling argument between tech experts about the future of hyperlinks.

Author Nicholas Carr summed up the debate neatly: Check it out: “Miller, in her Salon review of The Shallows, put all her links at the end of the piece rather than sprinkling them through the text. She asked readers to comment on what they thought of the format. As with Gillmor’s early experiments, Miller’s seemed a little silly on first take. The Economist writer Tom Standage tweeted a chortle: ‘Ho Ho.’ But if you read through the (many) comments her review provoked, you will hear a chorus of approval for removing links from text.”

How do you like to read? Should hyperlinks be sprinkled inside of an online book review or saved for the end? Here are the links cited in that post:

Salon review
Neuorethics at the Core post
Standage’s tweeted chortle
The Shallows site