Hypertext is essentially “enhanced text”, where the prefix hyper comes from the Greek and translates to over and extends the meaning of the original word. In the case of hypertext, this extension of the original meaning of the word text is in the mathematical sense.
The hypertext you are reading right now is text with references (or hyperlinks) and can be found on any electronic device on the Internet, on your computer or smartphone. And because hypertext has to be transferred to these devices in some way, this brings us to the acronym HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) – that is, hypertext transfer protocol.
HTTP – Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The development of HTTP began in 1989 at CERN labs and was documented in HTTP v0.9 in 1991. A full five years later, version v1.0 was released, and in 1997, HTTP/1.1 saw the light of day, and it remains with us essentially to this day.
Although we’ve had HTTP2 for a few years now, custom seems to be an iron shirt – not all web servers have adopted this newer version, and some still remain loyal to version 1.1.
The fact is that HTTP2 brings some improvements over HTTP/1.1 and is slightly faster, but in the case of pure HTTP, all versions have the same shortcoming – not secure or safe.
Security is what it’s all about
And because security is what it’s all about, Netscape developed HTTPS in 1994. As the English acronyms suggest, the S at the end of HTTP stands for security (Secured).
So what is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS? HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP, where an end device, such as your browser, along with the server that provides, for example, this page, creates an encrypted tunnel. This means that this communication cannot be “eavesdropped” on in transit.
If you have a blog, then encrypting information that is meant for everyone may not strike you as a necessity, but it will be different in the case of a payment gateway. Here, maximum security for everyone is literally a necessity, and the absence of encryption would mean an absolute lack of such a service. The use of encryption in transmission, our already familiar HTTPS, makes sense wherever personal or otherwise sensitive data is handled and should be the standard these days.
The vast majority of web browsers today already warn that a site is not secure, and even search engines index and prefer sites with HTTPS over those that are not secure. Clearly, having a secure website using HTTPS increases its credibility and cannot be anything but recommended, and not just if you have an eshop, but even if you just have a blog.
Would you like advice on securing your website? Do you want to hunt down the top ranks in search engines? Contact us – we have experts on our team who will discuss everything thoroughly with you and together we will come up with the best solution tailored to you.