miji.beLink prefetch is a technique in which the browser fetches resources in advance before the user clicks a link, which can reduce the wait time of page transitions in some cases. The HTML <link rel="prefetch"> tag is a hint that tells the browser about resources likely to be needed in a future navigation. With the Speculation Rules API, you can control prefetching and prerendering by specifying conditions. On MDN (as of September 2026), this API is classified as an experimental feature.
Supporting browsers issue a low-priority request and store the response in the HTTP cache on disk. Because the resource is loaded from the cache at the point when the user actually clicks the link, network wait time can be reduced. In the Speculation Rules API, rules are defined in JSON format, and prefetching can be started with URL patterns or user actions (hover, pointer movement) as triggers.
Because a short URL goes through a redirect, one round trip of latency is added. One method is to prefetch the redirect destination URL, but according to MDN (as of April 2026), many browsers implement cache partitioning, so <link rel="prefetch"> does not help for the main document when navigating to another site. When the redirect destination is another site, this constraint applies. An implementation that starts prefetching on hover in a link list page or the preview screen of an email newsletter is also conceivable.
However, there are also points to watch out for. Because prefetching also fetches resources for pages the user does not actually visit, data consumption increases on mobile connections. In addition, because the prefetch requests themselves are recorded in access logs, accurately measuring the number of clicks may become difficult. From a privacy perspective, care is needed because requests occur to sites the user did not intend to visit. It is desirable to implement it in combination with detection of Data Saver mode and control through user settings.