It’s been a long time coming – 16 years in fact – but HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol, is to get an update that aims to make the web a much faster and optimised experience.
Led by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), HTTP’s first redesign since before the turn of the millennium confirms the standard has been finished and is being sent through the editorial process, assigned Request for Comments (RFC) numbers.
Once this has all been completed, we could be seeing HTTP2 relatively soon and coming with it will be faster page loads, longer connections and better server pushes, all of which makes our future internet use a better browsing experience, according to The Next Web.
Having announced the news on his own blog, chair the IETF HTTP Working Group Mark Nottingham has quite recently detailed what we should expect to find from HTTP2, including advanced TLS encryption which both web browser producer Mozilla and search giant Google have said will be a requirement for those wishing to utilise HTTP2.
Text input is also being removed in favour of binary protocols, which are understood to be less error-prone, less complex and more secure when it comes to hacking activities, such as a response splitting attack.
Nottingham, however, had said HTTP2 is unlikely to be the real deal at its initial release, admitting it “isn’t magic web performance pixie dust” and will inevitably need some tweaking to get it to being just right.
HTTP image via Shutterstock
