Editing Hyperlink (section)

{{Short description|Method of referencing visual computer data}}
{{for|help creating links on Wikipedia|Help:Contents/Links|selfref=y}}
{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}}
[[File:Hyperlink example.svg|thumb|An example of a hyperlink as commonly seen in a [[web browser]], with a [[computer mouse]] pointer hovering above it]]
[[File:hyperlinks_scheme.svg|thumb|Visual abstraction of several documents being connected by hyperlinks]]

In [[computing]], a '''hyperlink''', or simply a '''link''', is a digital reference providing direct access to [[Data (computing)|data]] by a [[user (computing)|user's]] [[point and click|clicking]] or [[touchscreen|tapping]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyperlink|title=hyperlink|website=Merriam-Webster|date=2025-03-13}}</ref> A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. [[Hypertext]] is text with hyperlinks. The text that is linked from is known as [[anchor text]]. A software system that is used for viewing and creating hypertext is a ''hypertext system'', and to create a hyperlink is ''to hyperlink'' (or simply ''to link''). A user following hyperlinks is said to ''navigate'' or ''browse'' the hypertext.

The document containing a hyperlink is known as its source document. For example, in content from [[Wikipedia]] or [[Google Search]], many words and terms in the text are hyperlinked to definitions of those terms. Hyperlinks are often used to implement reference [[mechanism (engineering)|mechanisms]] such as tables of contents, [[footnotes]], [[bibliographies]], [[index (publishing)|indexes]], and [[glossaries]].

In some hypertext, hyperlinks can be bidirectional: they can be followed in two directions, so both ends act as [[HTML element#Anchor|anchors]] and as targets. More complex arrangements exist, such as many-to-many links.

The effect of following a hyperlink may vary with the hypertext system and may sometimes depend on the link itself; for instance, on the [[World Wide Web]] most hyperlinks cause the target document to replace the document being displayed, but some are marked to cause the target document to open in a new window (or, perhaps, in a new [[Tab (interface)|tab]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/t/tabbrows.htm |title=Tabbed browsing |website=Computer Hope |date=Dec 31, 2020 |access-date=July 26, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-date=May 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210526055511/https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/t/tabbrows.htm }}</ref> Another possibility is [[transclusion]], for which the link target is a [[URI fragment|document fragment]] that replaces the link anchor within the source document. Not only persons browsing the document may follow hyperlinks. These hyperlinks may also be followed automatically by programs. A program that traverses the hypertext, following each hyperlink and gathering all the retrieved documents is known as a Web ''spider'' or [[Web crawler|crawler]].