Growing
Bi-directional links
Most links on the internet are considered monodirectional. That is, they exist on Page A and direct you to Page B. But, Page B has no idea that Page A referenced it.
In a system with bi-directional links, Page A can still direct you to Page B, but Page B would be aware of this linkage.
On this site, bi-directional links allow me to point to other pages on my site where a post or concept was referenced. It also enables the inline expandable context blocks.
Other Resources
Maggie Appleton puts it like this:
A bi-directional link has social awareness - it knows about other pages or ‘nodes’ that point to it, and can make them visible to people. This means we get a two-way conversation flowing between our web locations.
Mentioned In
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Adding inline context to blog posts
Updated 8 months ago