Nodes can contain any combination of text, images, sounds, movies and, increasingly, various forms of interactivity. Links connect individual items from a certain node to any other node, according to the web author's preference and taste, forming a network of nodes connected via these links. The resulting mesh created by the networked nodes is rhizomatic.

Theorists Deleuze and Guattari describe the rhizome as that which:

"...connects any point to any other point, and its traits are not necessarily linked to traits of the same nature; it brings into play very different regimes of signs, and even nonsign states... It is composed not of units but of dimensions, or rather directions in motion. It has neither beginning nor end, but always a milieu from which it grows and which it overspills... The rhizome proceeds by variation, expansion, conquest, capture, offshoots. ...the rhizome pertains to a map that ...is always detachable, connectable, reversible, modifiable, and has multiple entryways and exits."
(10000 Plateaus, p.203)

The chaotically rhizomatic nature of the Internet has created two major related problems;

• It's hard to find exactly what you're looking for.
• Users tend to 'skim' sites, seldom lingering unless what they're looking for is immediately apparent.

But witness the paradox: confronted with a site that is rich in linkages to other information, the most commonly observed response is that of maniacally following links without pausing to examine the contents of any particular one in detail. Like mad cartographers, we seek to map the territory without lingering to visit the place. We reveal our preoccupation with ordering, not savoring, our resources.

Marco Novak transArchitecture

The Internet is not 'owned' by any one person or organisation and is structured in an ad hoc basis by ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and by users who store their sites on ISP servers. The lack of a comprehensible underlying structure or unifying interface metaphor, reinforced by rapid growth in the number of sites, makes it impossible for users to form a mental map. The sheer volume of material available on the Internet does more than just make it difficult to locate specific information, it affects the entire mindset and, therefore, behavior of individuals when they are on-line.

For more about the development of the web, see also : How the Internet Grew

See also : Hyper Hypertext for more about Vannaver Bush and Ted Nelson

The network as such will remain an unknowable system -- an invisible territory, maps of which we continually redraw by surfing the net, but a territory which will remain several dimensions beyond our ken."

Paul Harris, HYPER-LEX: A Technographical Dictionary