International standard |
|
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Developed by | initially CERN; IETF, W3C |
Introduced | 1991 |
Website | https://httpwg.org/specs/ |
HTTP |
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Request methods |
Header fields |
Response status codes |
Security access control methods |
Security vulnerabilities |
Internet protocol suite |
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Application layer |
Transport layer |
Internet layer |
Link layer |
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems.[1] HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, where hypertext documents include hyperlinks to other resources that the user can easily access, for example by a mouse click or by tapping the screen in a web browser.
Development of HTTP was initiated by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1989 and summarized in a simple document describing the behavior of a client and a server using the first HTTP version, named 0.9.[2] That version was subsequently developed, eventually becoming the public 1.0.[3]
Development of early HTTP Requests for Comments (RFCs) started a few years later in a coordinated effort by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), with work later moving to the IETF.
HTTP/1 was finalized and fully documented (as version 1.0) in 1996.[4] It evolved (as version 1.1) in 1997 and then its specifications were updated in 1999, 2014, and 2022.[5]
Its secure variant named HTTPS is used by more than 85% of websites.[6] HTTP/2, published in 2015, provides a more efficient expression of HTTP's semantics "on the wire". As of January 2024,[update] it is used by 36% of websites[7] and supported by almost all web browsers (over 98% of users).[8] It is also supported by major web servers over Transport Layer Security (TLS) using an Application-Layer Protocol Negotiation (ALPN) extension[9] where TLS 1.2 or newer is required.[10][11]
HTTP/3, the successor to HTTP/2, was published in 2022.[12] As of February 2024,[update] it is now used on 29% of websites[13] and is supported by most web browsers, i.e. (at least partially) supported by 97% of users.[14] HTTP/3 uses QUIC instead of TCP for the underlying transport protocol. Like HTTP/2, it does not obsolesce previous major versions of the protocol. Support for HTTP/3 was added to Cloudflare and Google Chrome first,[15][16] and is also enabled in Firefox.[17] HTTP/3 has lower latency for real-world web pages, if enabled on the server, and loads faster than with HTTP/2, in some cases over three times faster than HTTP/1.1 (which is still commonly only enabled).[18]
rfc9110
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).This lowers the barrier for deploying TLS 1.3, a major security improvement over TLS 1.2.
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