SE-Radio-Episode-232:-Mark-Nottingham-on-HTTP/2

Innovations

HTTP/2 introduces several technical innovations that enhance web communication. Mark Nottingham highlights the shift from textual to binary protocols, which simplifies implementation and reduces errors. This change allows HTTP messages to be split into frames with explicit stream identifiers, enabling multiplexing and resolving head-of-line blocking issues 1.

The biggest change was that once you have this binary encoding, you can split up HTTP messages into those frames, and each of those frames has what's called an explicit stream identifier.

--- Mark Nottingham

Additionally, server push is introduced, allowing servers to send resources to clients proactively, optimizing load times 2 3.

   

Performance

Performance improvements in HTTP/2 are substantial, offering a smoother user experience. Mark Nottingham notes that users can expect a 5-15% performance boost simply by enabling the protocol, with potential for greater gains through optimization 4. The protocol reduces overhead by eliminating the need for performance hacks like CSS inlining and JavaScript concatenation, thus enhancing efficiency 5.

Anecdotal evidence I'm getting is often performance with HTTP two is smoother. There's less variation from load to load.

--- Mark Nottingham

This shift allows servers to manage performance, moving decision-making from browsers to servers, which can better prioritize responses 6.