There are various reasons for linking to other sites. Some companies simply want to provide as much information as possible to their visitors. They want to become a one-stop shop, so to speak. Why visit several sites to book a flight on an airline, rent a car, book a tour, and reserve a hotel room if it can be done at one site-- be it on one site or through links from one site to other sites?

Another reason is to provide information that would otherwise be too expensive to provide yourself. Links from a small business site to other sites are a way to provide information without the associated expense.

Let's say that you want to provide news to visitors about your site. If you obtained the news yourself, you would either have to pay reporters and editors or you would have to pay license fees to other news services who pay reporters and editors to gather and write the news. If you have a website that simply links to all the news sites, you could be providing all that information without incurring the cost.

Still another reason to link is to benefit from using the name of a reputable or famous company (or product) to attract all types of visitors to your site. Assume you're a graphic designer who creates websites for individuals and businesses. Anyone could be a potential customer, so you want to attract as many people as possible. You link to sites for Disneyland, online book stores, online CD stores, and airlines. After all, millions of people search for those sites. Your link (using those names) may show up in a search. And once people see your site, you're just sure they'll keep you in mind when they want to hire someone to create their own website.

Whatever your reason, your links will inevitably include someone else's name or logo.

This is where some of the controversy begins.