Linking question full URL or relative

[KevinC]

Hey I couldn't find an answer to this with a site search and would like someones help on this one.

When building websites I have always used links like : hosting.html or index.html but should I be using the full url instead like: [widget.com...] or [widget.com...]

What are the advantages and disadvantages?

[europeforvisitors]

Google has absolutely no problem with relative links, and I've done very well in Google while using them. I prefer relative links because they make for simpler code, they load faster, they make a small contribution to reducing Net congestion, and they're easier to maintain.

Still, not everyone shares my preference.

For an argument in favor of relative links, see:
[boogiejack.com...]

For an argument in favor of absolute links, see:
[searchengineworld.com...]

[KevinC]

hey thanx for the point in the right direction!

[andreasfriedrich]

Or use the base element [w3.org] to specify an absolute URI that acts as the base URI for resolving relative URIs on your page.

This makes for smaller pages than absolute URIs and still works in things like Google´s cache.

Andreas