Linkedin url function

Question

I came across a post on Quora addressing why LinkedIn uses tokens like *1_*1_*1_*1_*1_* in their url. The answer mentioned these help track where a user came from to enable a user to return to where he came from.

How exactly does the URL store that type of information, and why would they use that token instead of something more conventional, such as ?last=this-page?

Answer 1

Appears that those are used to carry forward and populate the form values on the left for the search page. The 1 is probably a section or form number, * means wildcard (empty on form). The _ is just a separator. Try populating a previously empty form field and click search You'll you see one of the previously *1 portions of the url be replace with the value you provided in your form.