Terms
HyperText Transfer Protocol
The set of rules browsers and servers follow to exchange web pages.
HTTP is the language your browser and a web server use to talk to each other. The browser sends a request (“give me this page”), and the server sends back a response: the page itself, plus a status code saying how it went.
It was designed in 1989 for sharing documents between researchers. Almost everything on the web still runs on it.
Where you meet it
The http:// at the front of a web address. Status codes are part of HTTP too, which is why a missing page shows a 404 rather than a random error.
These days you will almost always see HTTPS instead, which is the same protocol with encryption added.
Related concepts
- DNS The directory that turns a domain name into the address of an actual server.
- HTTPS Nobody sitting between you and the site can read or alter what is sent.
- 301 The address changed for good, and browsers are sent to the new one.
- 403 The page exists, the server just will not serve it without the right access.
- 404 The server has no page at the address that was requested.
See also
External resources