Show Anchors makes use of page anchors to allow in-page linking to contents. It is necessary that the page supports and uses the HTML anchor tag. Most WordPress blogs and many other sites do that.

The program is available as a bookmarklet which should work in most modern web browsers and as a Firefox add-on.

Just drag and drop the Show Anchors bookmarklet to the bookmarks bar or the browser’s bookmarks. Click on the link when you are on a page where you want to create an in-page link for bookmarking or distribution. This displays all anchors available on that particular page giving you the option to right-click an anchor to copy the link or add the link to the browser’s bookmarks.

The copied links work in all modern browsers and do not require installation of the bookmarklet or Firefox add-on.

The firefox add-on Show Anchors works pretty much the same way. It adds an option to the Firefox right-click menu to show all anchors. Once selected all anchors on the page are displayed again. The program will display an on-mouse-over context menu with options to copy, bookmark or send the anchor or switch to the next anchor on the page.

The Firefox version of Show Anchors will display anchors on all pages of the domain once selected. Users who do not need the anchors anymore need to select the option again from the browser’s context menu to disable the showing of anchor tags.

Firefox users can download the Show Anchors add-on from the official Mozilla Firefox add-on repository. The bookmarklet which is compatible with all modern browsers is available on this page.

Let me give you an example to make this clear. If you search for Click Here in Google you will see that the first result is a page at Adobe, to be precise the download page of Adobe Reader. You won’t find the phrase on that website but it still ranks as number one for that term. Why is that ? Because other websites that link to this page are using the keyword Click Here as the anchor text.

And here begins the dilemma for the average webmaster, Adobe could care less because they are a huge company. Lets say you write an awesome article about Windows 7, the new operating system of Microsoft. If someone links to your blog with the anchor text Windows 7 or Windows 7 review you will get a vote from that website for that keyword and your ranking in the search engines might improve.

It actually will improve if you get enough votes. The article is about Windows 7, you get votes for that keyword, that’s awesome. Right ! That’s the correct way of linking to another website because it is helping the other website in the search engines which attracts more visitors that visit that website.

Many websites however use a sites name, or even worse phrases like here, website or click here to link to other websites. Those average terms do not help the linked websites at all. They do not hurt either but they cast votes in a field with a competition in the hundreds of million. Not that helpful.

So, if you want to help a website and write an article about a story that you found on another website you should use a related anchor tag to help that website – that is, unless you want to rank better for that term.

Now. What would you do ? Would you fight for the chance to win this uphill battle risking everything you got in the course of it ? Or would you give in although you might have every right to link to those websites and shows ? It is indeed a difficult question and I’m really not sure how I would react if I would face such a situation.

Would you personally say that linking to a movie on youtube for instance is illegal if the movie itself has been illegally uploaded to the site ? Would not it make more sense to sue youtube instead – they are hosting the content. So, why didn’t they sue google instead ? Could it be that google has enough money to hire some lawyers who would defend their site ? Could it be that Fox is not interested in a ruling at all ?

The same tactics can be witnessed when RIAA lawyers sue people. Most can’t afford lawyers and do what the RIAA lawyers tell them. The people that fight the ruling normally win and the RIAA backs out.

The main question however is the following: If it is indeed illegal to link to illegal content why aren’t they suing the search engines ? What if a website changes content and has now something illegally on their site ? Do webmasters have to check all the sites that they link to every day to make sure there is nothing hosted on them that could get them in trouble ?

Where will this end ? Can they sue me if I talk to someone in person and tell him that he should search for Simpsons on youtube to find and watch the latest episodes ? What if someone does not link directly to the shows but to a search results page ? Still illegal ? What if he writes down the name that his visitors should search for and links only to the main address of the video hosting site ? Still illegal ?

Where does it end ?