In computing, a hyperlink, usually shortened to link, is a directly followable reference within a hypertext document.

The area from which the hyperlink can be activated is called its anchor; its target is what the link points to, which may be another location within the same page or document, another page or document, or a specific location within another page or document; this depends on the type of hypertext.

To insert a hyperlink to another place is often simply called to "link". Hypertext (meaning "more than just" text) is a form of text typically published on websites that provides a richer functionality than simple text documents by enabling the reader to explore interesting links to other web pages linked to specific words or images within the page. Typically the link anchor will be descriptive of to the target's content, for example Wikipedia home page, but badly designed or malicious sites may use obscure links or obfuscated links which make it hard to work out where the link will take you.

Embedded link

Example: The first word of this sentence: ("Example") is a navigation link embedded in a text object – if the word is clicked, the browser will navigate to a different page.

Inline link

An inline link displays remote content without the need for embedding the content. The remote content may be accessed with or without the user selecting the link. Inline links may display specific parts of the content (e.g. thumbnail, low resolution preview, cropped sections, magnified sections, description text, etc.) and access other parts or the full content when needed, as is the case with print publishing software. This allows for smaller file sizes and quicker response to changes when the full linked content is not needed, as is the case when rearranging a page layout.

Hot area

A hot area (image map in HTML) is an invisible area of the screen that covers a text label or graphical images. A technical description of a hot area is a list of coordinates relating to a specific area on a screen created in order to hyperlink areas of the image to various destinations, disable linking via negative space around irregular shapes, or enable linking via invisible areas. For example, a political map of Africa may have each irregularly shaped country hyperlinked to further information about that country. A separate invisible hot area interface allows for swapping skins or labels within the linked hot areas without repetitive embedding of links in the various skin elements.

Random accessed

Random-accessed linking data are links retrieved from a database or variable containers in a program when the retrieval function is from user interaction (e.g. dynamic menu from an address book) or non-interactive (e.g. random, calculated) process.

Hardware accessed

A hardware-accessed link is a link that activates directly via an input device (e.g. keyboard, microphone, remote control) without the need or use of a graphical user interface.