The development and use of standards enables the Web to transcend different technical architectures. Hyperlinks enable users to navigate between different servers. They also enable search engines to crawl the Web and to provide sophisticated search capabilities on top of crawled content. Hyperlinks are therefore crucial in connecting content from different servers into a single global information space. By combining simplicity with decentralization and openness, the Web seems to have hit an architectural sweet spot, as demonstrated by its rapid growth over the past 20 years.