New Delhi: The Internet is racing ahead and changing fast and even our good old Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is also getting a facelift with its successor HTTP/2.
For those still wondering what this non-human code is, HTTP is a mechanism a browser uses to request information from a server and display webpages on your screen. It is the first thing that comes in the web address bar on your browser.
The update basically means the following:
Faster loading of web pages
Its predecessors HTTP/1.0 and HTTP/1.1 protocols used multiple connections to request different objects (images, text and other non-human special content needed to build a web page) from the servers. More like baking a cake from scratch and being mindful of putting one ingredient at a time which is a slow process.
The update will let the browsers do the same through a single connection, which essentially means content on your Facebook page would load faster and neater, and emails will not ask you if you 'also' want to display the images. Read-a premix for a cake.
Secure browsing
The second most important feature worth noting in the post-NSA revelation era is browsing security. Although the HTTP/2 has not been given a green light to have an in-built encryption, some of the major web browsers (read - Chrome and Firefox) have said that they won't accept HTTP/2 if it doesn't support encryption.
So all the data transfer, browsing, and incognito modes, will be safer.
Developed in response to Google's SPDY protocol, which the searh giant created to address the performance issues with the traditional HTTP, the update - two specifications - HTTP/2 and HPACK will soon hit the browsers in the upcoming weeks.
Your favourite browsers are eager to welcome the updated protocol with open arms after negotiations which means that browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft's upcoming Project Spartan browser (successor to IE) will support HTTP/2.
The Internet Engineering Task Force's HTTP Working Group, techies behind the HTTP/2 protocol, have said that the goold old HTTP won't die and its core composition will remain unchanged.
Browsers using the new protocol
Today, Mozilla has launched Firefox 36 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android that includes full HTTP/2 support. The addition is aimed to pep up the web browser's speed and security.
Other browsers to support HTTP/2 include Microsoft's Internet Explorer under the Windows 10 Technical Preview and Google's Chrome (while the protocol is disabled in Chrome by default, you can easily enable it).
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