What Does HTTP Stand For?
Unlike “http,” most people have become used to typing in or using the “www” prefix when searching for something on what they call the Internet. They may even know that “www” stands for World Wide Web, which is actually the network of computers, servers and information storage that spans the globe. (The Internet has become the common term used interchangeably with World Wide Web, but they are not one and the same.)
Most could not explain why many Web sites and searches have the letters “http” in them, along with the symbols “//” and “:”.
“Http” stands for hyper text transfer protocol. This is the main protocol or methods that allows one site to link to another and allows people to browse the Web. Without this method, the Web would be of little or no use.
A protocol is a set of rules that must be established before any communication can take place. What these rules or protocols do that makes worldwide searching, requesting and communication possible is establish a connection between two computers that may not even be running the same operating system.
In some cases, a computer user may see “https” and in this case the “s” is a short way of saying secure sockets layer or just secure. This means that when you use online or Web-based pay systems and the “https” is there, you are working with a secure location.
Most end users, those everyday users of word-processing and browsing the Web, do not need to know the details of hyper text transfer protocol. They may want to know if the session is secure, however, so it might be wise to look for that “s” at the end of the prefix.
With this in mind, there are probably enough curious computer users to make a summary/explanation of “http” necessary. This is a protocol or method, as explained earlier, that makes it more efficient to move information between computer locations connected to the Internet. When a person browses the Web, looking for a certain site or definite piece of information, they have to make a request for it when they find it.
This is where “http” comes in. This method usually establishes the connection via the TCP connection. This is almost a standard when it comes to connection and communication involving the Internet. A group known as the World Wide Web Consortium helped develop the “http” system of communication to facilitate the request and reception of text documents from a site on the World Wide Web.
The basic explanation of “http” apart from the technology that makes it possible involves Uniform Resource Identifiers or more commonly a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). This is the accepted method of identifying a source of information when using hyper text transfer protocol.
Where is the information that users look for and request? It’s on a Web server, which is the computer that hosts the Web page. An individual hundreds of miles away can see the page, request information from it and do this so that the server can understand the request. It’s all because of protocols like “http.”
Category: Internet, Technology