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I have used internal page-links in many of my sites so was interested to read Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox - ‘Avoid Within-Page Links‘ and see what the net-proclaimed ‘Web usability guru’ had to say on the matter.

His main reason why you should avoid within-page links is that they confuse the user. A link should bring up a new page and anything straying away from this norm is just, well, confusing. Now in some ways I have to agree. I agree that there are web users who are generally stupid not net-savvy. This is why Jakob Nielsen can get away with writing his alertbox and speak at seminars and sell his studies.

However, nobody can deny that the number of people using the web has increased dramatically over the last few years. Therefore people are becoming more experienced at using the web. Within-links are not going to confuse these users. Come on Jakob, give people more credit!

This is the main problem I have with many of the alertboxes. Yes, Jakob Nielsen had some very valid points when he began writing about web usability issues, some 11 years ago. However, times change, technologies change and people change.

There are often references to his ‘Top Ten Web-Design Mistakes’ lists but they were written several years ago. In the current alertbox, there are references to ones written in 2002 and 1999. I would just like to remind Jakob that it is 2006. Things have changed in the last 7 years on the web. Your points may have been relevant at the time of writing, but not all are relevant now.

I have also noticed that the alertboxes are simply used as a sales tools for his usability studies and seminars. Whatever the subject matter, there are always links to a study or seminar where you can find out more, at a price. Isn’t that lucky for the reader? Then again, if I were him I’d do the same. We’re all here to make money, aren’t we?