What HTTP exactly is?

HTTP stands for 'hypertext transfer protocol'. If we try to understand its meaning literally, 'hypertext' refers to the text(HTML text for instance) with additional information like linkage to many other pages, which is not visible to the client on the browser side. 'transfer' symbolizes the transfer of request from the client to server and response from the server to the client; and 'protocol' refers to the step-wise procedure through which the aforementioned transfer is made (i.e. the request is transferred from the client to the server, and the response is rendered from the server to the client).

Now that we have seen what HTTP stands for, let us dive deeper into this concept and try to understand what it exactly does. the ISO has given a 7-layer architecture stating how data transfer takes place between people and machines across the globe. this model is known as OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) model, and HTTP falls in the application layer of this OSI model. So, HTTP refers to the process/protocol through which the transfer of requests and responses between the client and server takes place.

Any webpage on the World Wide Web has its unique URL(Uniform resource locator), through which it can be accessed. the first part of this URL is where the method/protocol used to retrieve the document from the server is specified (which most of the time is HTTP).

when these messages that are transferred between clients and servers is encrypted i.e. an additional security layer is added to them, the transfer protocol is then referred to as HTTPS, where 'S' stands for 'secure'.