Have you ever noticed the tiny link at the end of blog posts called "Permalink" and wondered what that was all about? This is a look at where that came from and why it could go away if blogging applications would get their act together.
What is a Permalink? The name pretty much says it all. It's a link to the permanent location of a blog post. Why do we need them? There are times when a blog post may be read at a location other than it's permanent home. For example, we currently publish our seven most recent posts to the homepage of Technology Evangelist. If someone was to find a story on the homepage interesting enough to link to, but linked directly to the homepage rather than the specific posts Permalink location, their readers wouldn't be able to easily find the referenced post.
To address this, blogging platforms publish posts to a permanent location, then provide ways to syndicate the posts, post titles and summaries onto other pages within the site. For example, a new blog post will appear on an individual web page, the homepage, the appropriate monthly archive and in any category archives the post has been associated with. Wikipedia has a thorough entry on
permalinks here.
A
Permalink, therefore, is a link to the hyperlink from a page within a blog other than the permanent location that links to the Permalink location. Each blogging platform has created a slightly different Permalink linking system. Here are a few examples:
TypePad creates a link called "Permalink" in the footer of the homepage and archives linking to the post's permanent URL:
Blogger generally links using the date of the post . . .
. . . or the time stamp depending on the blog's configuration. . .
And Movable Type blogs seem to use either time stamps . . .
. . . or "Permalink" links. . .
Why don't we need Permalink links? Permalinks serve a purpose that's better addressed by hyperlinking post titles. None of the above blogging platforms - Movable Type, TypePad, or Blogger - do this by default, but they should. Wordpress is the only blogging platform I've found that does this out of the box:
What's gained by doing this?
People expect headlines to be hyperlinked. They are everywhere else on the web. Show a little consistency.
The anchor text of your headlines helps search engines determine what your posts are about. Chances are pretty good that most of them are NOT about Permalinks.
Should Permalink Links be Banished?
Well, not quite. There may be some value in providing a Permalink for people who read your entire post and decide it's so brilliant that they want to blog about it, e-mail it to all their friends and submit it to their favorite online bookmarking sites. They shouldn't have to scroll all the way back up to your headline to find the post's permanent URL.
1. Posted by: Brendan on May 24, 2006 12:36 AM:
Most Wordpress themes (including the default template) have used the concept of the title as permalink since, well, a very long time.
The idea of a 'permalink' link has been around for a very long time - it's not a terribly complex ideology and it will be 'familiar' to a great many people.
You also rail on about how evil they are, yet then suggest they're a-ok because they do actually serve a purpose. So which is it? :)
Personally I see nothing wrong with any form of link to an entry, as long as it's uniformly used - it's also worth remembering that a goodly percentage of regular readers will have read this in their RSS reader of choice, which will automatically "linkify" the post title (or add a 'read more' link).
It's, imho, not so much how you link to something, but rather that it is uniform and predictable, that is important.