hyperlinknetwerk

Hyperlinknetwerk is a Dutch term meaning hyperlink network and is used in information science to describe the network formed by hyperlinks among digital resources. It focuses on the structural properties of connections between pages, documents, or data resources, and on how these connections influence navigation, discovery, and meaning.

In a hyperlinknetwerk, nodes represent resources such as web pages, articles, or datasets, while directed edges represent hyperlinks from one resource to another. Weights may be assigned based on frequency of clicks, anchor text relevance, or semantic similarity, allowing analysis of importance and influence within the network.

Properties often observed in hyperlinknetwerken include small-world characteristics, where most resources are a few steps apart, and scale-free distributions of node connectivity, with a few highly connected hubs. The layout of the network affects information retrieval, search engine ranking, and user experience.

Applications include web design, navigation optimization, link analysis for search engines, creation of knowledge graphs, and semantic web initiatives. Researchers study how hyperlink structures reflect or shape collective attention, authority, and topical organization.

The concept also highlights challenges such as link rot, broken or outdated hyperlinks, privacy concerns in tracking navigation, and the ambiguity of anchor text in signaling intent. There is ongoing work to model dynamic changes and to integrate hyperlink data with other modalities like social signals and metadata.

See also: hyperlink, hypertext, World Wide Web, PageRank, knowledge graph, semantic web.