What Happens When a Link Turns Purple? The Mystery Unveiled

When a link turns purple, it’s more than just a cosmetic change – it’s a visual cue from your browser indicating that you’ve already visited that particular webpage. This simple color change is a fundamental aspect of web browsing designed to improve user experience and help you navigate the vast expanse of the internet more efficiently. The purple color, typically a shade of #551A8B, serves as a memory aid, allowing you to quickly distinguish between pages you’ve already explored and those you haven’t. This default behavior is deeply ingrained in modern web browsers and has been a standard for many years. Let’s dive deeper into why this happens, and explore other related aspects.

The Purpose Behind the Purple: Visited Link Behavior

The change of color from the typical blue of an unvisited link to purple is a default functionality implemented by web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. This is not a website-specific feature but a universal browser setting designed to enhance your browsing experience. The logic behind this is simple yet effective: it helps users keep track of their online journey. Without this visual indicator, you might unknowingly click the same links repeatedly, revisiting pages you’ve already scanned.

The primary reason for using purple is its distinction from blue, the typical color of unvisited links. This clear contrast makes it easy to differentiate between the two states at a glance, minimizing user confusion. While websites can override these default colors and implement their own styles, the core concept of differentiating visited and unvisited links remains paramount.

Why the Specific Choice of Purple?

While the specific shade may vary slightly, the selection of purple for visited links wasn’t arbitrary. It’s the result of years of standard web development practices and user interface considerations. The original choice of blue for unvisited links and purple for visited links dates back to the early days of the internet when Mosaic was a prominent web browser. The contrast between the two colors was deemed effective for user experience, helping users navigate more easily.

The rationale is that blue is a bright, welcoming color that signals an available link, while purple provides a darker tone, implying that the destination has been reached. The combination of these two colors has become a standard that users are familiar with and easily recognize.

Beyond the Default: Customization and Variations

While the default behavior is for visited links to turn purple, there are exceptions:

• Website Specific Styles: Websites can, and often do, define their own styles for links. They may choose to have visited links appear as a different color, a faded version of the unvisited link color, or even remove the color change altogether.
• Browser Extensions: Browser extensions or custom themes can alter the default appearance of links, including visited links. You may be seeing visited links appear as something other than purple because of an extension you’ve installed.
• Color Deficiencies: For users with color deficiencies, relying on color cues alone may be insufficient. To address this, browsers will usually include additional cues, such as making visited links less luminous, underlined, or styled with a different font.
• Accessibility: Good web design practice ensures that links, in all states, are clearly identifiable even to people with colorblindness.

Dealing With Purple Links: Options

If you find that purple links are cluttering your search results or you’d prefer to not have them, there are a few options available to manage them. It’s important to understand that this functionality is built into your browser, not the search engine itself, so the changes must be made through the browser settings:

• Clearing Browsing History: The most direct way to clear purple links is to clear your browser’s browsing history. This process will remove the records of your visited sites and revert links to their default unvisited state. This option will also delete other browsing information like cookies and caches.
• Customizing Browser Settings: You can adjust the color of links using CSS. Many browsers include options for customizations through settings and extensions. These options can disable the color change or choose a different color for visited links.
• Specific CSS Rules: For developers or technically savvy users, there are CSS rules to disable the change on particular websites. Using the a:visited pseudo-class can be manipulated to remove color change effects altogether.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is the default color of a visited link purple?

Yes, by default, most browsers style visited links in a shade of purple, typically #551A8B. This is to provide a visual cue that the user has already accessed that specific webpage.

2. Why do all my Safari searches show purple links?

This indicates that Safari is using your browsing history to determine that you have already visited those results, regardless of whether it’s in a different browser. It is operating as designed.

3. Can I change the color of a visited link?

Yes, you can change the color of a visited link through browser settings, using browser extensions, or with custom CSS code, which can override the default purple.

4. What is the HTML code for a visited link?

The HTML code for a visited link is not distinct. The browser uses the CSS a:visited selector to style visited links. The base HTML code for a link itself is always <a href="URL">Link Text</a>.

5. How do I stop a link from turning purple?

You can prevent links from turning purple by setting the same color for both a:link and a:visited states in CSS. You might also need to remove the default underline style.

6. Does clearing my browsing history remove purple links?

Yes, clearing your browsing history will remove the record of visited links, causing them to revert to their default unvisited color, which is typically blue.

7. Why are some search results purple in Bing?

Similar to Google, Bing uses a browser default to style visited links as purple. It reflects your browsing history and is designed to help you distinguish visited from non-visited results.

8. Can a website control the visited link color?

Yes, websites can override the browser’s default styles for visited links using CSS, allowing them to use their own color schemes.

9. What does “href” mean in an HTML link?

href stands for hypertext reference. It is an HTML attribute that specifies the URL that the link will direct the user to. It’s an essential component of a working link.

10. Why is my search engine showing grey links?

A greyed-out search engine logo or search results usually indicates a temporary tribute, like when Google or Apple paid tribute to the late Queen Elizabeth II. This is not related to browsing history or visited links.

11. What is a “color link”?

“Color Link” refers to enhancements that allow users to select or change the color of visited links, often implemented to improve user navigation, particularly for users with color deficiencies.

12. Are HTML links always purple?

No, HTML links are not always purple. Unvisited links are typically blue and visited links are purple by default, but this can be changed by CSS styling.

13. Why were blue links chosen for the internet?

Blue was chosen because it was found to be an effective color for signaling interactive elements. Blue is bright and contrasts well with text background, making it easier to see and identify links.

14. How do I disable visited link colors in Google Chrome?

You can disable visited link colors in Chrome by using custom CSS through extensions. Or, you can clear browsing history, which will remove the ‘visited’ data.

15. What are some accessibility considerations for link colors?

Accessibility considerations for link colors include providing sufficient contrast between link text and background, using underline styling to support people with color vision deficiencies, and making the visited link states distinct from non-visited states.

By understanding the function and customization options for visited link colors, you can navigate the web more efficiently and tailor your browsing experience to your preference. The purple link, though simple, is a powerful tool in your online toolkit.