HTTP compression is a process of compressing data that is transmitted over the internet using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) for faster transfer between the client and server. It works by reducing the file size of the content being transferred, ultimately reducing the amount of data being transmitted and improving the page load time.
When a web browser makes a request for a page, the server can check whether the browser supports compression by looking at the Accept-Encoding header in the request. If compression is supported, the server will compress the content before sending it to the client.
The most common compression algorithms used for HTTP compression are GZIP and DEFLATE. Both compression algorithms work by compressing repeated strings, resulting in a smaller file size. The GZIP algorithm works better with larger files, while the DEFLATE algorithm works better with smaller files.
When the server compresses the content, it adds a Content-Encoding header to the response, indicating the type of compression used. The client can then decompress the content using the appropriate algorithm.
HTTP compression can significantly reduce the amount of data transferred between the client and server, resulting in faster page load times and lower bandwidth usage. However, it can also increase CPU usage on the server and client, and may not be beneficial for very small files or for low-spec devices.
