Revisiting why hyperlinks are blue
There are some more links in the Internet History mailing list discussion started by Vint Cerf about the origin of the term &quot;hyperlink&quot;, including some email from Ben Shneiderman and Marc Andreesen that they agreed to share:<p>Top of discussion thread:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;elists.isoc.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;internet-history&#x2F;2020-April&#x2F;thread.html#5939" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;elists.isoc.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;internet-history&#x2F;2020-Apri...</a><p>First message:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;elists.isoc.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;internet-history&#x2F;2020-April&#x2F;005939.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;elists.isoc.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;internet-history&#x2F;2020-Apri...</a><p>&gt;From: vinton cerf<p>&gt;Date: Sun Apr 12 09:41:05 PDT 2020<p>&gt;I asked Jeff Rulifson if he could help us figure out when &quot;hyperlink&quot;
entered into usage. Jeff was the principal programmer for Douglas
Engelbart&#x27;s NLS editing system in which such links were introduced. Ted
Nelson coined terms like &quot;hypertext&quot; in his Xanadu concept - the two were
contemporary in the 1960s.<p>&gt;Here is Jeff&#x27;s response: [...]<p>Here&#x27;s my reply quoting email from Ben Shneiderman and Marc Andreesen with more citations and links:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;elists.isoc.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;internet-history&#x2F;2020-April&#x2F;005961.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;elists.isoc.org&#x2F;pipermail&#x2F;internet-history&#x2F;2020-Apri...</a><p>&gt;From: Ben Shneiderman<p>&gt;Date: 14 April 2020 at 22:38:16 CEST<p>&gt;I contacted Mark Anderson who provided some useful information – he agrees to passing this on, so you can share with others.  See below and attachments.  Claus Atzenbeck also works on hypertext history, but he could not provide further information.<p>&gt;So we don’t know who coined hyperlinks, but I think the claim that my idea (some time in 1984) and the work of UMd grad students (especially Ostroff and Koved) defined, implemented, and validated the visual design of highlighted selectable hyperlinks within a paragraph (what TBL called hot spots) remains intact. A strong piece of evidence is the April 1986 CACM paper with Koved.  For those checking exact dates, the paper says “Received 9&#x2F;85: accepted 11&#x2F;85”. The Ewing et al paper from 1986 says “Received 6 March 1985” …both are attached.<p>&gt;Ewing J, Mehrabanzad S, Sheck S, Ostroff D and Shneiderman B (1986), &quot;An experimental comparison of a mouse and arrow-jump keys for an interactive encyclopedia&quot;, International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, Jan., 1986, Vol 24, pp. 29-45. [Abstract &lt;&gt;] [BibTeX &lt;&gt;] [DOI &lt;<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dx.doi.org&#x2F;10.1016&#x2F;S0020-7373(86)80038-4" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dx.doi.org&#x2F;10.1016&#x2F;S0020-7373(86)80038-4</a>&gt;]<p>&gt;Ostroff D and Shneiderman B (1988), &quot;Selection devices for users of an electronic encyclopedia: an empirical comparison of four possibilities&quot;, Information Processing and Management, Nov., 1988, Vol 24(6), pp. 665-680. [Abstract &lt;&gt;] [BibTeX &lt;&gt;] [DOI &lt;<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dx.doi.org&#x2F;10.1016&#x2F;0306-4573(88)90004-0" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dx.doi.org&#x2F;10.1016&#x2F;0306-4573(88)90004-0</a>&gt;]<p>&gt;The 4000 copies of the PC-based Hypertext on Hypertext disks, using Hyperties from Cognetics Corp, published by ACM appears to have been widely influential in gaining adoption.  That is what TBL cites in his Spring 1989 manifesto for the web, and his choice of light blue highlighting comes from our work…. As he told me at some conference.<p>&gt;The video made around 2015 by me, shows it in operation:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;29b4O2xxeqg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;29b4O2xxeqg</a><p>&gt;Our web page is:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cs.umd.edu&#x2F;hcil&#x2F;hyperties&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.cs.umd.edu&#x2F;hcil&#x2F;hyperties&#x2F;</a><p>&gt;You are welcome to pass this around and&#x2F;or post to the discussion boards that are debating this issue. Comments or clarifications are welcome.<p>&gt;--Ben<p>&gt;From: Mark Anderson<p>&gt;Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 2020 10:17 AM<p>&gt;Ben,<p>&gt;[cc-ing in Mark Bernstein who often seems to recall erly hypertext-related facts. Mark: this is discussion on first use of the term ‘hyperlink’, as well as use of coloured links. You might also add a useful reference on first use of the history (i.e. nodes traversed i-session) , booksmark and breadcrumbs (&quot;Bookmark &amp; Compass&quot; perhaps?)]<p>&gt;Oh yes, please do. I do think early hypertext history likes this needs collecting, while we can. Straddling the start of the digitised print age, much of the early stuff is now on paper and hard to find. My bookshelf is now growing with publisher proceedings. They are bought second-hand and mostly come with (cancelled) university library. Thus for subjects that would have been niche at outset, the scope for loss if knowledge is high.<p>&gt;I have also know skim-read the ECHT’90 Proceedings (uot of print and no ebook available [sic]) and not found any mention of ‘hyperlinks’.<p>&gt; Anyway, here is the first mention, in context. The ABC paper (links as per my last email) in HYPERTEXT’91 Proceedings, page 185, original authors&#x27;styling of text:<p>&gt;Referring, once again, to level 1 of the data model: the server differentiates between structural links and hyperlinks. Constraints on structural links determine the type of the subgraph; –e.g., no node in a tree subgraph may have more than one incoming link. Hyperlinks, however, may join any two nodes in the same subgraph or in different subgraphs. … Thus, the first level of the data model actually consists of nodes, structural links, hyperlinks, subgraphs, and hypergraphs, all with associated contents and attributes.<p>&gt;I attach an RTF file with a number of hypertext-related proceeding (some only available in paper form).  Both DL.ACM and IEEE proved incapable turning results for the term ‘hypertext’ in the full text of documents. In the case of DL.ACM it couldn’t even find the above which suggests OCR-recovered texts aren’t being indexed&#x2F;searched properly. Oh dear! DL.ACM looking at the 1960-90 window did find 4 instance of the word hyperlink in 1991—none in hypertext papers.<p>&gt;The word is not indexed [sic] in my 1992 edition of O’Reilly’s “The Whole Internet” and I can’t find the term in the brief 36 pp chapter (#13) on the Web. I’ve also checked Nelson’s Literary Machines (I have a digitised copy of the c.1991 edition) as well of some of his early (late 60s) papers I’m helping archive at present.  Nothing there.<p>&gt;Here is the file:<p>[I have uploaded the PDF attachments and linked to them here (and inlined the text one), since the internet-history mailing list email size is limited. -Don]<p>Embedded menus: Selecting Items in Context. 
Larry Koved and Ben Shneiderman.
Communications of the ACM, Computing Practices, April 1986, Volume 29, Number 4, p. 312-318<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;donhopkins.com&#x2F;home&#x2F;documents&#x2F;Koved-Embedded Menues-CACM-4-1986.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;donhopkins.com&#x2F;home&#x2F;documents&#x2F;Koved-Embedded Menue...</a><p>An experimental comparison of a mouse and arrow-jump keys for an interactive encyclopedia
John Ewing, Simin Mehrabanzad, Scott Sheck, Dan Ostroff and Ben Shneiderman
International Journal of Man Machine Studies (1986) 24, p. 29-45<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;donhopkins.com&#x2F;home&#x2F;documents&#x2F;Ewing-Ostroff-mouse-arrowkeys-IJMMS-1986-01-published.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;donhopkins.com&#x2F;home&#x2F;documents&#x2F;Ewing-Ostroff-mouse-ar...</a><p>Origin-hyperlink:<p>HYPERTEXT’87 Proceedings  - nothing<p>Hypertext I Proceedings (1988) - nothing (book source only)<p>HYPERTEXT’89 Proceedings - nothing<p>ECHT’90 Proceedings - nothing (book source only)<p>Hypertext II Proceedings (1990) - nothing (book source only)<p>HYPERTEXT’91 Proceedings (1 paper).
Smith &amp; Donaldson.
ABC: a hypermedia system for artifact-based collaboration pp.179–192.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dl.acm.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;122974.122992" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;dl.acm.org&#x2F;doi&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;122974.122992</a><p>p. 185: 
Referring, once again, to level 1 of the data model: the server differentiates between structural links and hyperlinks. Constraints on structural links determine the type of the subgraph; –e.g., no node in a tree subgraph may have more than one incoming link. Hyperlinks, however, may join any two nodes in the same subgraph or in different subgraphs. … Thus, the first level of the data model actually consists of nodes, structural links, hyperlinks, subgraphs, and hypergraphs, all with associated contents and attributes.<p>ECHT’92 Proceedings - nothing<p>HYPERTEXT’93 Proceedings - nothing<p>ECHT’94 Proceedings (5 papers)<p>Davis, Knight &amp; Hall.
Light hypermedia link services: a study of third party application integration pp.41–50
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.192767" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.192767</a> &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.192767" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.192767</a>&gt;
1 use of hyperlink<p>Anderson, Tayloer &amp; Whitehead.
Chimera: hypertext for heterogeneous software environments pp.94–107.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.192783" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.192783</a>
3 uses of hyperlink<p>Christophides &amp; Rizk.
Querying structured documents with hypertext links using OODBMS pp.186–197.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.192799" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.192799</a>
3 uses of hyperlink<p>Ossenbruggen &amp; Eliëns
Music in Time-Based Hypermedia pp.224–227.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.376055" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.376055</a>
1 use of hyperlink<p>Brailsford
Experience with the use of Acrobat in the CAJUN publishing project pp.228–232.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.376057" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;192757.376057</a>
3 uses of hyperlink<p>HYPERTEXT’96 Proceedings (5 papers)<p>HyperCafe: Narrative and Aesthetic Properties of Hypervideo pp1–10.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234829" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234829</a>
p.7 Fig. 8 Caption:  A portion of the HyperCafe script organized and hyperlinked using Storyspace
Moulthrop, Stuart. Dreamtime, A hypertext with time-constrained hyperlinks,1992.<p>Ut pictura hyperpoesis: spatial form, visuality, and the digital word pp.66–73.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234835" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234835</a>
3 uses of hyperlink<p>Evaluating HyTime: an examination and implementation experience pp.105–115
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234839" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234839</a> &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234839" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234839</a>&gt;
12 uses of hyperlink<p>HyPursuit: a hierarchical network search engine that exploits content-link hypertext clustering pp.180–193
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234846" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234846</a> &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234846" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234846</a>&gt;
23 uses of hyperlink<p>Logic programming with the World-Wide Web pp.235–245.
<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234851" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234851</a> &lt;<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234851" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;doi.org&#x2F;10.1145&#x2F;234828.234851</a>&gt;
18 uses of hyperlink