I just got a note from Amazon with the following information in it:

Context Links are a quick and convenient way to add links to your website and monetize your content. Context Links automatically identify and link relevant phrases within your page content to Amazon products, unlocking new ad inventory and saving you the time from having to manually create links. You can add the links to your pages in minutes, and we provide a wealth of options to customize how they are displayed.

They were kind enough to provide a link to MuppetCentral.com where you can see this revolution in action.

Amazon Popups

Yes, it really is that bad. If you mouse over a single-underlined link in the text labeled ‘Zappa’ (which looks exactly like a hyperlink) you are actually not navigating, you are in fact going to an Amazon product page. How the user is meant to distinguish between real navigation and this, I’m not sure. Fortunately, there’s a handy popup that tells you what you need to know. I wonder if you’d get a preview of a popup if you used the Snap preview tool in conjunction with this.

Seeing this coming on the heels of Google’s text link ads I get the feeling (perceptive, aren’t I?) that we’re going to see more of these nav breakers all over the web. I can’t wait.

Amazon and Google aren’t stupid companies - they must have tested these formats and found them to work. Having said that, I can’t believe that this will hold true in the long run. I’m hoping these go the way of the flashing banner at the top of the page. Once the novelty value is gone, users will tune them out.