If you’ve been using the internet for some time now, you’ve probably had to type in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into a web browser to access a webpage or website.
A Uniform Resource Locator goes something like: “www.domain.com” or “http://www.domain.com” or “https://domain.com.”
The “www” in a URL stands for “world wide web.” And I’ve also explained in my other article that “http” stands for “hypertext transfer protocol.”
But what does “https” stand for? And what’s the difference between “http” and “https”?
Here’s the deal:
Http stands for “hypertext transfer protocol,” while “https” stands for “hypertext transfer protocol secure.” What’s the difference? It’s simple: one is secure and one is not. That is, information transferred across an “https” domain will be encrypted, while information transferred across an “http” domain will not be encrypted.
What does all that really mean? To put it simply, an “http” website is easier to hack than an “https” website, and the source code of an “http” website is easier to steal than the source code of an “https” website, for example.
Related: What’s the difference between a webpage and a website?
