HTTP/2 – what is it, and why should you care?

HTTP are those 4 letters that sit at the start of a web address that we’re all familiar with, but may not really be sure what they mean – they stand for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This is the mechanism by which a web browser speaks to a web server to request information and then display you a web page on your screen.

HTTP has been around since the beginning of the internet – in fact you could consider the protocol the very foundations of the internet. In 1989, Sir Tim Berners-Lee made the first successful communication between a HTTP client and a web server. But HTTP/1.1, the version that we have all been using since 1999, is soon to be refreshed. HTTP/2 is on the way, but what will it mean for the average website or web user?

What is it?

HTTP/2 will update the way in which web browsers speak to servers. By using new and more efficient means of transporting data between a web browser and a server, the end result should be a faster internet for everyone. The greater efficiency means that a browser will no longer need to repeatedly make requests to a server for different resources until a website loads – a server can instead respond with a greater number of resources than originally requested. A web browser will also be able to make requests for more than one piece of data at the same time.

What will it mean for you?

Put simply, a faster web browsing experience. Internet speeds are gradually increasing already, as are mobile network speeds, so this progress paired with HTTP/2 will result in a speedier web experience from any device.

HTTP

HTTP/2

When is it arriving?

The updated protocol has already been rolled out and support included in the latest version of most modern browsers. However, according to W3Techs, only 2.3% of the top 10 million websites supported HTTP/2.

Images: HttpWatch