- From: Robin Hanson <hanson@hss.caltech.edu>
- Date: Fri, 15 Sep 95 12:07:30 PDT
- To: www-talk@w3.org
- Cc: hanson@hss.caltech.edu, Adam Jack <ajack@corp.micrognosis.com>
I wrote: > Given that I'm looking at a page (call it page1), I want to push just > one button, and get a page which lists pages which reference page1. >... >Backlinks were a central feature of early "hypertext" visions. They >would, for example, allow people to easily find criticism of pages. >Imagine that people at the home page of the CIA, RJR Reynolds, etc., or >at some high-profile Op-Ed article, could find responding critiques >with just one button push! Adam Jack replied: The referring URL is available in the HTTP request for pages. Many sites use it in CGI scripts to include it into the HTML the provide. It is IMHO - given the current state of HTML - up to the page creator to modify the page content. The browser shouldn't be involved. This is also logged. I have a script that scans the logs to see who viewed my pages with what browsers - and where they came from. ... BTW - I form this scripts output into an HTML page which I publish internally. I just need to click on the URLs to go do exactly as you suggest. It is a lesson and a half. You misunderstand. Yes, it's nice that a page author can see the URLs which reference it, and that this author might modify their page to let readers see these URLs. But I want to see these URLs for all pages, even for pages where the author would rather I didn't see them. The CIA and RJR aren't likely to make it easy to find criticism of their pages. Robin Hanson hanson@hss.caltech.edu http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/ 818-683-9153 2433 Oswego St., Pasadena, CA 91107 FAX: 818-405-9841 818-395-4093 Div. Hum. & Soc. Sci. 228-77 Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125
Received on Friday, 15 September 1995 15:06:37 UTC