An article called Writing for the Web can be found on the Dartmouth Web site and is a good reminder that we have very little time to capture a readers attention.
An item of interest:
"Visual distraction. Colored and underlined text within body text pulls the eye by disrupting the uniformity of the text block. If you place a link within a paragraph, the user's eye will be drawn to the link. Many users will click on that link directly without ever reading the text that forms its context."
In yet another dichotomy, it's clear that we want to provide links to more information but these links definitely distract. When I'm reading some of my own pages, I've been frustrated because the link is the first thing that catches my eye on the page and that's really not what I want. The link takes the reader to information that is ancillary to the main purpose of the page.
Boldface type can be used (and color too) to give those who are scanning a page something easy to grab. But boldface and or colored type appear to indicate that something is a link. Placing all the links in one location on the bottom of the page or in a side bar is a better strategy than putting links in the middle of a paragraph where they are distracting (or rather attracting).
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