Why the new HTTP is different and why the world should care

New Web

Article from Issue 181/2015
Author(s):

HTTP/1.1 was advanced for its time, but it wasn't designed for today's complex websites. We'll show you why the new HTTP/2 specification provides a solution.

HTTP/2 is the official name for a new version of the network protocol made famous by the success of the World Wide Web. The previous version, HTTP/1.1, was standardized in RFC 2616 [1] in 1999, and the web has changed a lot since then. Modern websites are made up of many elements that browsers need to load successively: scripts, CSS files, images, advertising, and much more.

The top 1000 sites in 1999 contained only an average of about 10 objects. In the years between 2009 and 2012, the number of objects doubled from 50 to 100, and as a result, the average load time increased by 48 percent between 2010 and 2012 – despite faster systems and higher bandwidths [2]. The steady rise in website complexity led to a need for web standards that use network resources more efficiently.

HTTP/2 is mostly compatible with HTTP/1.1 because methods, status codes, URIs, and headers remain the same [3]. You won't need to change your existing web applications. However, new applications will benefit from the new functions available in HTTP/2. The new version aims to speed up surfing, play well with common HTTP applications, and support web servers, web APIs, proxy servers, firewalls, and content delivery networks.

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