The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the underlying networkprotocol that enables transfer of hypermedia documents on theWeb, typically between a browser and a server so that humans can read them. The current version of the HTTP specification is calledHTTP/2.

As part of aURI, the "http" within "http://example.com/" is called a "scheme". Resources using the "http" scheme are typically transported over unencrypted connections using the HTTP protocol. The "https" scheme (as in "https://developer.mozilla.org") indicates that a resource is transported using the HTTP protocol, but over a secureTLS channel.

HTTP is textual (all communication is done in plain text) and stateless (no communication is aware of previous communications). This property makes it ideal for humans to read documents (websites) on the world wide web. However, HTTP can also be used as a basis forREST web services from server to server orfetch() requests within websites to make them more dynamic.

See also

• HTTP on MDN
• HTTP on Wikipedia