What is HTTP (2024)

FAQs

What is HTTP and why is it used? ›

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the foundation of the World Wide Web, and is used to load webpages using hypertext links.

HTTPS is HTTP with encryption and verification. The only difference between the two protocols is that HTTPS uses TLS (SSL) to encrypt normal HTTP requests and responses, and to digitally sign those requests and responses. As a result, HTTPS is far more secure than HTTP.

Thus, Hypertext Transfer Protocol is the system of rules which allows data to be transferred using the World Wide Web, where Uniform Resource Locators or URLs (for example, https://www.google.com) can be linked together by hypertext.

HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) and HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) are two completely distinct technologies. HTTP is an application protocol that governs how information travels on the World Wide Web, whereas HTML governs how Web pages are formatted and displayed.

HTTP is mostly used to transfer data packets from web servers to web browsers. This allows us to receive and view HTTP documents — also known as web pages. HTTP is the data transfer protocol used by almost every website since the early days of the Internet.

HTTP transmits unencrypted data, which means that information sent from a browser can be intercepted and read by third parties. This wasn't an ideal process, so it was extended into HTTPS to add another layer of security to communication. HTTPS combines HTTP requests and responses with SSL and TLS technology.

HTTP does not encrypt data during client-to-server communication, which means that any data transmitted over HTTP is sent in plain text without any encryption or security mechanisms. As a result, it can be intercepted and read by anyone with access to the network traffic, including cybercriminals.

HTTP does not use encryption, which means that any information you send can be intercepted by someone else on the network. This is why using a secure connection is essential when sending sensitive information.

Fundamentally, all URLs should only be accessible via one unique address. If URLs are accessible via both HTTP and HTTPS, then you will need to select one of these as the 'canonical' version, and ensure that the other version redirects to the canonical, across all URLs.

HTTP is a protocol for fetching resources such as HTML documents. It is the foundation of any data exchange on the Web and it is a client-server protocol, which means requests are initiated by the recipient, usually the Web browser.

What are the basics of HTTP? ›

HTTP is an application-level protocol. The communication usually takes place through TCP/IP sockets, but any reliable transport can also be used. The standard (default) port for HTTP connection is 80, but other port can also be used. The first version of HTTP was HTTP/0.9, which was introduced in 1991.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application-layer protocol for transmitting hypermedia documents, such as HTML. It was designed for communication between web browsers and web servers, but it can also be used for other purposes.

A URL is the unique resource, which can be a CSS document or an HTML webpage. HTTP, HTTPS, FTP are the protocols used with the URLs to access the resources. It also indicates the address of a webpage that we type into the space bar.

At a high level, we can even think of the Internet as hardware and the Web as software! Web applications use HTTP protocol which is a layer over TCP protocol. Whereas internet applications can use either TCP or UDP protocol.

TCP contains information about what data has or has not been received yet, while HTTP contains specific instructions on how to read and process the data once it's received. TCP manages the data stream, whereas HTTP describes what the data in the stream contains.

Simply put, HTTP is the protocol that enables communication online, transferring data from one machine to another. WWW is the set of linked hypertext documents that can be viewed on a web browser (such as Google Chrome, Firefox, and more). A major similarity, though, is that both HTTP and WWW are used in website URLs.

Search engines like Google recommend that all websites use HTTPS because it's secure, and sites with SSL certificates are rewarded with a boost in search rankings. Web browsers also alert users if a website isn't safe and uses HTTP.