Section 1: The Power of Hyperlinks

Lets return to the question just asked: "What was it about HTML that made the internet more appealing/accessible to users?" The internet became more appealing and accessible to users when HTML provided users the ability to jump from page to page via hyperlinks.

The <a></a> Anchor Tag

The power of the hyperlink comes from the <a></a>, or anchor, tag. To clarify, the power of the hyperlink comes from the combination of the <a></a> tags and some helpful attributes. In fact, the <a></a> alone cannot create a hyperlink. In order for an <a></a> tag to become a hyperlink, an important, powerful attribute must be added to the opening <a> tag. That attribute is the href="" attribute, where "href" stands for hypertext reference.

The href="" Attribute

The href="" attribute is like other attributes in that it must have a value associated to it. The value of an href="" attribute can be several things, most notably:

• An absolute reference.
• A relative reference.
• An email address.