Second Coming: The First HTTP Update in 16 Years, HTTP/2, Is Finished
HTTP is one of the most fundamental standards on the Internet and now, after 16 years, it’s finally getting a facelift. Make way for HTTP/2.
You use HTTP all the time, even if you don't know it… every time you go to a website it's travelling over HTTP.
It will, as you'd hope, bring some hefty benefits to the web. It should make for faster page loads, ensure connections last longer and facilitate servers to push data to your cache, so your computer doesn't have to pull it at a later date. HTTP/2 will support multiplexing, so that multiple requests can be delivered on simultaneously. It supports existing APIs, allows for cache pushing which helps avoid a round trip between fetching HTML and linked stylesheets and CSS, and bring better overall security.
Along with the article below this post gives a great overview of what to expect from HTTP/2: https://www.mnot.net/blog/2014/01/30/http2_expectations
So, how long to roll this out and expect everyone to support it? 1 decade? 2 decades? 😉
All major browsers within the year. FireFox is saying they'll only do HTTP/2 if TLS comes along for the ride… a push for encryption! Of course there will be routers and proxies and all that jazz that will need to implement/catch up. Who knows how long that will take.