As web developers, it’s our job to optimise the websites in a way that offers the user the best possible experience. We’re not talking about UX design, it’s so much more than that. Starting with the page’s loading time and ending in the smallest detail, nothing gets overlooked.
But there is only so much we can do. We needed a change at the very core. And now the big change is just one step away from becoming reality.
The latest version of HTTP is now officially finalised and will soon be fully standardised. To fully understand the importance of this, think that this is the biggest change since 1999, when HTTP 1.1 was adopted.
Mark Nottingham, Chair of the IETF HTTP Working Group and a member of the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG), listed 9 of the things to expect from HTTP/2. These are:
– same HTTP APIs
– cheaper requests
– network and server friendliness
– cache pushing
– being able to change your mind (this refers to saving bandwidth if a client stops a download or navigates away from the page)
– more encryption
– no more text
– it will take some time to get it right
– HTTP/3 and beyond
You can read the full article here. We are going to extract the essence below.
What’s really great about HTTP/2 is that it uses significantly lesser connections. This means, of course, lower load on the network and servers. Also, one of the developers’ nightmare is coming to an end. If, by now, everyone knows that a lot of HTTP requests on a page are a big no-no, with HTTP/2 you get to use a new multiplexing feature that allows you significantly more requests delivered at the same time, without blocking the page load.
The new Hypertext Transfer Protocol is based on Google’s SPDY protocol and Google have already announced that they are going to switch fully to HTTP/2 on Chrome.
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