HTTP
Technology & Computing abbreviation · Networking
| Stands for | Hypertext Transfer Protocol |
|---|---|
| Categories | Technology & Computing |
HTTP stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol, a networking abbreviation.
The request-response protocol browsers use to fetch web pages, images and API data from servers. A client sends a method such as GET or POST with a URL and headers, and the server replies with a status code such as 200 OK or 404 Not Found plus the content. Plain HTTP is unencrypted and uses port 80 by default.
Example: Chrome now labels any page served over plain HTTP as "Not secure" in the address bar.
Usage notes
Created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN between 1989 and 1991 alongside HTML and URLs; the first version is retroactively called HTTP/0.9. HTTP/1.1 (1997) added persistent connections, HTTP/2 (2015) added binary framing and multiplexing, and HTTP/3 (2022) runs over QUIC instead of TCP. The protocol is stateless, so sites rely on cookies to remember logins between requests. Modern browsers often hide the "http://" prefix in the address bar.
Related abbreviations
More networking abbreviations
- DoT – DNS over TLS
- EIGRP – Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
- FQDN – Fully qualified domain name
- FTP – File Transfer Protocol
- FTPS – FTP Secure
- GRE – Generic Routing Encapsulation
- HTTPS – Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure
- IANA – Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
- ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
- ICMP – Internet Control Message Protocol
- IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force
- IMAP – Internet Message Access Protocol