Permalinks

From Well Designed Urls WiKi

olorodomdro The term permalink originated to describe a URL that pointed to a specific entry in a blog even after the entry was no longer shown on a blog's home page. Though it's origins are from the blogging world, the use of the term has expanded to refer to any URL where there is a reasonable expectation it won't change in the foreseeable future.

Permalink is a portmanteau made from permanent link and attempts to convey that the URL will continue to point to the same location indefinitely so-as to avoid link rot a.k.a. broken links. Of course nothing is permanent; bloggers move servers and change software or just get bored with blogging and let a blog die. Companies fail and/or get acquired, and many organization doesn't place a priority on ensuring that URLs remain dereferencable after they are first published.