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How Bo.lt Works

BO.LT is a Page Cloud, providing a complete infrastructure for creating, storing, optimizing and delivering web pages. The BO.LT Page Cloud can be accessed through our page-sharing service at http://bo.lt as well as through our API at http://dev.bo.lt.

The BO.LT Page Cloud

The BO.LT Page Cloud runs on top of our highly-scalable, edge-based page delivery platform. We have clusters of servers geographically distributed to move your content close to the folks who want to see it so they don't have to wait.

Unlike many general-purpose cloud platforms, including Amazon and Google, the BO.LT Page Cloud is designed and built solely for the high-speed delivery of targeted, frequently updated HTML pages. Our Page Cloud has several advantages:

  1. Instant publishing - When you load a page into BO.LT, it is available instantly
  2. Instant changes - Whether you create a new version, target content, or rename it, your changes are reflected immediately. No waiting
  3. Flexible loading - Upload an FTP, clone a page, or create a new version with an editor
  4. Automated page optimization - Pages are automatically speed-optimized
  5. Targeting and Testing - A BO.LT address can automatically rotate or target different alternative pages to support A/B testing or even targeting to different visitor segments
  6. Automated analytics - We recognize and can often optimize tagging for tools like Google Analytics
  7. Your own URLs - We give you pages with your link, and you can change the link to whatever you would like

When a page is loaded into BO.LT, the HTML, CSS, Javascript, and images are copied onto the Page Cloud. Some assets, including embeds from third-party sites like YouTube, are not copied, in order to take advantage of the unique characteristics of those networks. Form submits and other critical actions from pages are proxied back to the appropriate servers so that you do not lose customer submissions.

How do we Copy Pages onto BO.LT?

BO.LT IS NOT a snapshot service or simple link shortener.

It is an extremely advanced publishing system. When you copy (or upload) a page onto the BO.LT service, the assets are "cloned", and an identical version is stored on our servers. The new page works the same as the original but is a separate copy that will not change when the source page goes away. Copying pages to our cloud happens in seconds, and the benefits are available immediately.

Pages that are copied onto the BO.LT Page Cloud are fully working pages that often perform better than the page from which they were copied. Unlike "dumb" CDNs, which treat everything as a file, our systems understand the page at the HTML level, and work within the web security model to repair tags, optimize HTML/CSS/Javascript, add comments and overlays, and optimize the performance of our network.

** Please note that while we have been working for over 18 months on the cloner, there are still pages that we cannot clone accurately, in many cases because of decisions on the part of the original owners. However, we can usually clone about 95% of the Internet, and we think that is pretty great.

Can I access BO.LT through an API

You can get an API key and use BO.LT programmatically to create new page-based services. Documentation is available at BO.LT API (http://dev.bo.lt)

The "RED" editor

Our on-screen editor is the first HTML5 editor that allows you to create and publish new versions of web pages instantly - simply by typing directly on the page. The RED (short for "Replace, Edit and Delete") editor generates entire new versions of a page, which are then speed-optimized.

Performance

We built our Page Cloud for speed. Speed of delivery, speed of publishing, and speed of change. Our engineers created the Adobe Test and Target serving platform, which now serves billions of views per week, as well as architecting key aspects of TiVo and Comcast's video on demand systems.

The Page Cloud's edge network moves your content close to your customer, and uses adaptive routing to continuously monitor page delivery and adapt to changes in latency.

Page optimization

Every page is subject to a baseline optimization when it is loaded. When combined with our edge network, you should expect to see a 10-40% improvement in delivery time from the original page. We also support further optimization via image compression and the compression of CSS and JS files through our admin interface.

Moreover, any change you make to your pages and URLs is available in seconds, and most page events are available in under 30 seconds. That means when you go to the BO.LT app, the data you are seeing is recent, so you can react. No more waiting.

Security

You will notice when you log into BO.LT that our app uses SSL encryption to protect your content while administering your pages. We can optionally provide SSL support for pages on your domain for an additional fee if you have a premium account.

We use a one-way hash for site passwords to minimize the risk of compromised account data.