Platform · 1991–now · Web Boom

HTTP / HTTPS

The application protocol of the internet. HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 are evolutions, not replacements.

Why HTTP / HTTPS stuck

HTTP stuck because it is stateless, cache-friendly, and legible to humans with tcpdump. Every "real-time replacement" still falls back to HTTP for auth, assets, and deployment. TLS made it trustworthy; QUIC made it faster — same idea.

protocol web tls

2000–2009

Web Boom

Part of the Web Boom era (2000–2009).

Read the Web Boom era →

Compare with

vs REST / HTTP APIs vs TCP/IP vs Unix / POSIX vs SQL / Relational

Architecture · 2000–now

REST / HTTP APIs

Stuck

Resources over RPC theater. Won the API wars by being boring enough to debug with curl.

Architecture · 1983–now

TCP/IP

Stuck

The network stack that won. Every "revolutionary" protocol still rides these packets.

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Web Boom

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Related

REST / HTTP APIs

TCP/IP