URLjét

URLjét is a fictional web addressing standard conceived to extend traditional URLs by embedding lightweight metadata and structured query information directly into the link. Designed to be backward-compatible with standard HTTP requests, URLjét aims to enable better content negotiation, provenance, and link context without resorting to separate query strings.

Origins and scope: The concept emerged in academic discussions about open web architecture in the early 2020s, with speculative proposals associated with a fictional consortium called the URLjét Alliance. It is not an official standard; this article treats URLjét as a hypothetical construct for explanatory purposes and to illustrate how metadata-rich linking could operate.

Syntax and encoding: URLjét uses metadata blocks appended to and interleaved with the path. A block is denoted by curly braces containing comma-separated key-value pairs. Multiple blocks can appear in sequence. Example: https://example.org/resource{type:article,lang:en,version:2}/content{format:html,strict:true}. Decoding is performed by a URLjét parser that extracts meaning and negotiates with the origin server according to the embedded metadata.

Implementation and usage: In hypothetical systems, servers publish profiles describing supported keys, types, and constraints. Clients can cache results more effectively and prefer resources matching specific metadata, while intermediaries can route requests with context-aware policies. The approach can facilitate finer-grained content discovery and automated routing decisions.

Criticism and status: Critics argue that the approach adds parsing overhead, increases complexity, and risks misinterpretation or misconfiguration in tooling. As a fictional concept, URLjét has no formal standardization and remains a subject of theoretical discussion and demonstration experiments.

See also: URI, URL, hyperlink, content negotiation, OpenURL, JSON-LD.