Comments on: Are In-Content Links Destroying Our Ability To Think?

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:30:09 +0000

Good question. I have no idea what the answer is though. I didn’t even realize there was any captcha system in place. The only thing I can think is that for whatever reason my spam plugin flagged your comment was spam as a false positive. It actually flags me as spam on occasion when I’m not logged in as the admin.

I’m slowly working on a redesign and with it some changes in the plugins I use, including the spam plugin. Hopefully that will fix the problem.

By: Steven Bradley

Steven Bradley — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 22:27:15 +0000

Thanks. What was most interesting to me was that the research seems to clearly indicate any distraction, including in-content links slows us down. Other than this post I haven’t stopped included them and don’t intend to, but it’s still something to consider. I wonder if the best solution would be to make the links a little less obvious so they can more easily be skipped, but apparent enough for those that want them.

I’m the same as you. I’ll read, open a new tab, and get back to reading. I think a lot of this comes down to the reader too. Maybe it slows you down, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go back and read again if the first time through the content is something you want to read.

I’ve also been wondering if those of us here; me and everyone commenting, are a different kind of web reader. We likely spend more time reading online than the average person and so maybe this doesn’t affect us as much as it might others.

By: Simpleton

Simpleton — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:40:12 +0000

ah sorry its just for the first one. Still kinda odd though.

By: Simpleton

Simpleton — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:38:53 +0000

by the way, whats up with your comment system? you do the captcha then end up at a blank white page saying “your comment has been accepted”. Then… nothing?

By: Simpleton

Simpleton — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:36:38 +0000

Great article. It’s definitely an interesting problem as there are arguments for both sides. Ultimately I think the designer / blogger should do what they find most useful.
Again I’m another one who will open another tab whilst reading. But ultimately as a reader I’m looking for an answer and they way we read web sites should not be compared to the way we read books because its completely different. Like apples and pears.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 19:28:27 +0000

To me, in-content links are the same as footnotes, which appear in many of the books I read. The choice comes with whether or not to click on the link (or skim to the bottom of the page for the footnote) right then and there.

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