Mixlin

Introduction

Broad Link is a form of hash-tagged hyperlink designed to be human readable. Accessing a Broad Link typically causes a webpage to load, displaying a set of other hyperlinks, metadata, and web content. An online service is typically associated with a Broad Link, allowing users to input multiple hyperlinks and receive a single unique hyperlink in return with which to retrieve those multiple hyperlinks.

History

The term ‘Broad Link’ originates from a concept by Roy Chiu and Ken Lim. The two had been collaborating on separate projects, in mobile online media. In solving one problem to create a map view, they were struck by the side effect it had of making browsing by the end-user a faster and bi-directional process.

When browsing a hyperlink used in the traditional manner, there was no way to access the available user actions on the target web page prior to visiting the page, yet often and end-user browsing for something, such as a restaurant for dinner, would be more interested in the table availability rather than reading the reviews. The ability to sample actions separately across a range of web pages is what lead to the concept of the Broad Link.

In March 2013, they founded Mixlin to develop a product based on this concept.

Characteristics

Broad Link services, which are typically public, share similarities with bookmark management services, and social bookmarking services, in that they condense information to a single point, i.e. the shared hyperlink, and re-expand it when a user accesses the link. Whereas the latter two services typically produce a similar content output versus the input, the output of a Broad Link typically contains richer and a larger quantity of content, specific to the individual hyperlinks in the set, than originally input.

In addition, a Broad Link URL is designed to be read by humans, rather than concealed by the link title, as is common with most web content. As such, useful information is included in the URL such that it will typically be displayed when shared with other users.

How It Works

There are two types of public users of such a service, a creator user and end-users. The common implementation of such a service is to have the online service exposed as a website, through which all users access the service.

A typical scenario is: a creator user visits the homepage of the website, enters a number of URLs into a web form, and obtains an output URL in return. The end-user, browsing a web article written by the creator user, accesses this URL and views a web page containing the set of hyperlinks. This web page does not merely serve as a summary of hyperlinks, but also creates a channel of web content for each hyperlink. This ‘depth’ of content per hyperlink may be determined by the creator user or the service. For example, an individual hyperlink to a web article about skiing conditions, may then lead to a local weather news section, and also an e-commerce site’s product page for sweaters.

Uses

Broad Links may be used for different reasons and purposes arising from the different stages of the ‘bowtie’ process of condensing, aggregation, and re-expansion of data.

Collecting Related Content

There are many examples of web list creation. For example, a food blogger posting a message on his or her social media feed about 10 top restaurants, or an individual who wishes to consolidate a number of personal and professional web profiles into a single link, or even someone wishing to collect Internet cat videos.

Updating Content

Broad Link services enable a user to modify the set of hyperlinks and content associated with the Broad Link. Retaining ownership of the point of dissemination allows the user to add, remove, or otherwise modify the content available to the audience. This also includes the actions available. For example, if a company decides to sponsor one of the cats in the cat video example above, then they may add actions to the individual hyperlink to promote the sale of their product.

Ranking

Based on metrics such as page impressions, link clicks, and number of visitors to Broad Links and individual hyperlinks, the service can provide performance scores. This alone would have limited use, however when combined with the relatedness between Broad Links and hyperlinks of different Broad Links, a composite score of performance versus relatedness may be produced to facilitate further applications.

Platform Independent

Such services are suited for preparing content expected to be acted on from different operating environments at the same time, such as mobile, television, or PC. This is because the Broad Link URL is universal, and the first point of expansion is served by the Broad Link service. This means the volume of content can be throttled, and the available actions can be tailored, rather than relying on each individual website to perform the tasks to varying degrees.