The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems.^[1] HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web.

Hypertext is structured text that uses logical links (hyperlinks) between nodes containing text. HTTP is the protocol to exchange or transfer hypertext.

The standards development of HTTP was coordinated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs), most notably RFC 2616 (June 1999), which defined HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP most commonly used today. In June 2014, RFC 2616was retired and HTTP/1.1 was redefined by RFCs 7230, 7231, 7232, 7233, 7234, and 7235.^[2] HTTP/2 is currently in draft form.