The traditional web allows you to form links- but there is no reliable way to link to specific content within a page. And there is no way to link to an older version of a document on the web.

The web also suffers from a lack of native embedding (aside from "iframe", with it's ergonomic issues and lack of target document addressing).

Fine-Grained Links

In the Hypermedia protocol, every document contains a hierarchal structure of blocks. You may reference:

A single block
A block and all of its children
An exact range of text within a block

This allows you to create references to exact sections of content, paragraphs, or even words. This powerful reference system enables highly-specific citations, which may facilitate learning, and may reduce ambiguity in our online conversations.

Versioned Links

By including an exact version in your URL, you may link to a version of a document that cannot change.

This enables discussions that allows you to refer to old opinions and knowledge, while ensuring the author will always have the ability to update their content.

Embeds

Hypermedia documents support "embed" blocks, which allow you to include a section of another document (or a whole document) into yours.

This solves a big logistical problem in the web. Traditional web sites must either link to a destination site, or they must copy the content. A link is fragile, and copied content may be perceived as stealing attribution. And in any case there is a lack of robustness.

Your embeds may reference a whole document, part of a document, a single paragraph, or a single word. And, you may reference exact versions of a document, which ensures the reference doesn't change, as this may break the logic of your content.

Combined with the Community Archival feature of the protocol, we empower knowledge managers with a very robust system of knowledge preservation and cross-site collaboration.