Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP) is an application-level protocol for distributed, collaborative,
hypermedia information systems. Its use for retrieving inter-linked resources
led to the establishment of the World Wide Web.
HTTP development was coordinated
by the World Wide Web Consortium in June 1999, which defines HTTP/1.1, the
version of HTTP in common use. HTTP is a request/response standard of a client
and a server. A client is the end-user, the server is the web site. The client
making a HTTP request. The responding server is called the origin server. In
between the user agent and origin server may be several intermediaries, such as
proxies, gateways, and tunnels. HTTP is not constrained to using TCP/IP and its
supporting layers, although this is its most popular application on the
Internet.
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia