What is "hypertext transfer protocol"

n. a protocol (utilizing TCP) to transfer hypertext requests and information between servers and browsers [syn: HTTP]

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.

Hypertext is structured text that uses logical links ( hyperlinks) between nodes containing text. HTTP is the protocol to exchange or transfer hypertext.

Development of HTTP was initiated by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1989. Standards development of HTTP was coordinated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs). The first definition of HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use, occurred in RFC 2068 in 1997, although this was obsoleted by RFC 2616 in 1999.

A later version, the successor HTTP/2, was standardized in 2015, and is now supported by major web servers.