As usual, Steve Tibbets hits the nail directly on the head with his post about link rot and Wikipedia. I would have to say that the domain that I link to the most would have to be Wikipedia. Most of the time I dot it because it’s convenient, but link rot (there! I just did it) happens a lot.
Microsoft is pretty bad at this. There have been too many times where I tried to follow a link into the MSDN, only to find that the MSDN has been reorganized and all of the links have changed.
If I link to another blog, I look for the permalink. That usually indicates that the link will be around for a while. I also try to find links on multiple domains. That way, the odds are less likely that you will get the dreaded 404 page when you follow a link that has rotted away.
Steve posting his rules for linking and they just make sense:
- If what I’m linking to has a top-level domain, then I will link to it.
- If I’m linking to someone’s words (say, a blog post or magazine article), then I will link to that.
- Otherwise, I’m linking to Wikipedia.