Although there is no universally accepted definition of what a hypermedia system really is, most hypermedia specialists seem to agree on one basic issue. A hypermedia system contains some pieces of information (often called nodes or chunks) that are tied together by links. Links in fact have almost become a defining characteristic of hypermedia.
In this paper we contend that the importance of links has been grossly exaggerated. Hypermedia systems in which links play only a limited role are quite conceivable. Indeed, many burning issues in current day hypermedia systems can be better resolved if other navigational techniques are used. We believe that the emphasis on links has caused a rather myopic view of hypermedia systems. A serious re-evaluation of the extent to which links are beneficial is important. This fact has been previously observed by others, the earliest being Van Dam's keynote address at 'Hypertext'87'. In this paper we propose a first significant step in using structure to replace links.