HTTP is an acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol; this is the most popular protocol in use today. It is the communication standard used by your web browser in order to communicate with the server of the website that you are viewing. WWW or the World Wide Web is a prefix to a certain name in order to identify that it is a web site that you are visiting.
There are many existing protocols in the internet today and in order to differentiate which one you want to use, they are given specific protocol names that should be present when connecting to a web site or any other source of data. Some protocols that are accepted by browsers are: HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, NEWS, and FILE. Although most sites are purely web servers, some sites host multiple services in a single domain name and in order to identify which one you are trying to access you must indicate the protocol that the service uses. You can see what protocol is currently in use by looking at the first word in the address bar.
Most websites come in a certain format, mostly it is www.anything.com. The word at the end identifies the site as commercial, the word in the middle is the domain name, and the WWW in the beginning indicates that it is a website and it uses the HTTP protocol. It is therefore redundant to have ‘http://www.anything.com’ since the WWW tells the browser to use HTTP when it is already in use. But because most people are already used to having a URI written this way, it is left as is by most experts.
Aside from the protocol names that are already reserved for obvious reasons, you can use any other prefix in order to establish a sub domain on your site. A sub domain can be a totally different web site that is sharing the domain name. In the case of sub domains, you can no longer use a prefix in order to identify the protocol in use, that is why you must specify the protocol by using HTTP://, FTP://, or any other protocol name.
Summary:
1. HTTP is the protocol used to transfer data to and from the website.
2. WWW is the identifier that indicates that it is a web site and it uses the HTTP protocol.
3. HTTP://anything.com, WWW.anything.com, HTTP://WWW.anything.com leads to the same site.
4. Any prefix that is not reserved to a protocol can be used as a sub domain.
- Difference Between Sony Cybershot S Series and W Series - December 22, 2012
- Difference Between Samsung Galaxy S3 and iPhone 5 - December 21, 2012
- Difference Between Samsung Galaxy S2 (Galaxy S II) and Galaxy S 4G - December 20, 2012
Not very clear.
There are some websites that open only when you type http://anything.com
Those sites do NOT open if you type http://www.anything.com
That means, some sites just do NOT work if you use www; you have to type http only, without typing www
So, what’s the real difference between http and www in this situation? How come some sites work only if you type http but not www?
Reply
Think again sharan..:)
Reply
Hey sharon:
http and www are in fact not the same things;
www means that you want to access a website that everyone with an internet connection can access
http has got nothing to do with any of that stuff, it is rather a method that could be used by web host providers who chose to use that method for hosting websites.
today http is most preferred for accessing sites that has literary become a given standard, and therefore since it is a given, typing or not typing it into the web browser does not make a difference.
Now, the www just states that you are accessing a website on the internet (world wide web), and since you probably paid to access to the internet (and there is only one internet there is not second one as far as I know), there could possibly be nowhere else that you would try to access the website. (all of the sites are in one location and which that is the internet) and again because of that fact, typing it, as well becomes unnecessary.
Reply
In lay man language to be more specific and to the point a page having name with http:// and http://www. will differ in the sense only that its ranking on the web is effected. I mean to say if a site like http://www.example.com and http://example.com then in these two addresses if you type any one on the web then it will redirect you automatically to the same domain but in search engines these are considered as two different pages so if you have link building on the two of the addresses then you will lose your linking rank. So in link building stick to either one of the address so that you can improve your page rank.
Reply
They all open -.-
Reply
Riddle me this….if I go to http://www.mytartelette.com I get one site, then when I go to http://mytartelette.com I get another site (don’t worry, a tartelette is a food, not a porn site). This one has me confused.
Reply
Well same site for both adresses…
Reply
Great quesiton. I noticed that when I analyze my own site those that I linked to using both http and www have more backlinks than those were i simply used http. And I also noticed that sometimes using the www works and sometimes with other sites it doesn’t and vice versa? Very confusing.
Reply
But while calculating backlinks why are they considered diff
Reply
Backlinks are calculated different because search engines view it as two seperate pages(URL’s). The solution for this is to set your preferred URL in Webmaster Tools and then 301 redirect the one that you don’t want to use.
Reply
good post
Reply
If a site is not working with http://www.site.com, and it is working with only http://site.com – then that is a sub-domain of some other site.
Reply
Just because the website leaves out the www doesn’t mean that it’s a subdomain of another site. I have two different sites and each have their own domain name. I just never used the www when I registered the domain.
Reply
I agree with Sharan; a problem I’m having with my own site at the moment is that it opens up on either http://anything.com or http://www.anything.com, but not both. Seems to me that in this case and the others cited above, http:// and www are not interchangeable. Please could someone explain.
Reply
Thanks for the comments, it is good to know this. I have been wondering why my domain which was registered as http://www.globalonlineshop.co.uk suddenly changed to http://globalonlineshop.co.uk after submitting to search engine.
It appears the later is the only being used as domain name. It should be fine as long as it now negative effects on search engine rankings.
Reply
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
market.android.
Reply
Nice stuff by everyone.
Reply
Nice stuff by everyone.pour out your experience and take on the subject.
Reply
ITS HOTS
Reply
Backlinks are calculated different because search engines view it as two seperate pages(URL’s). The solution for this is to set your preferred URL in Webmaster Tools and then 301 redirect the one that you don’t want to use.
edited because I got my website address wrong!
Reply
its to good
Reply
Guys the difference between http: and www is that
1. incase of http: you have hosted your website on a dedicated webserver connected with the internet. Further, taking SSL certification will enable your website to get a dedicated transmission link in an encrypted format.
2. www is for public access and anyone can easily land up to your webpage by name entering the search engine.
Reply
Arijetroy best answer.
Reply
hello Sir Arijit Roy, can you explain further regarding the vulnerability of a WWW? I mean how is it that anyone can easily land up to a webpage Sir? thank you Sir.
Reply
Not clear!!! You are not given the exact difference.
Reply
everyone being no brain
Reply
No brain ALL
Reply
HTTP is the protocol osed to transfer data to and form the website?
WWW is the indentifier that indicates that it is a web-sit and it uses the HTTP protocol
http://WWW.anything.com
http://WWW.anything.com leads to the same site.
I’m thinking who knows this and since when.
Reply
That’s nice
Reply