Paths represent a compromise between completely free navigation based on attractive associations and targeted retrieval according to the matching paradigm. In the former case, the phenomena of disorientation and cognitive overload described in detail in the literature since Conklin (1987), especially for hypertext-inexperienced users (cf. Rouet 1990), can hardly be avoided, the exact search in the "matching" paradigm presupposes exactly what is doubted in the "browsing" paradigm of hypertext, namely the ability of a user to know and describe his search …
Our most essential discovery in practice has been the substitution into hypertext of a history sensitive link. This embodies the original idea of a Trail and the interpretive process dubbed trail climbing.