For small documents, the limitations to the response time stem mainly from the number of round trip delays across the networks necessary before the rendition of the object can be started. HTTP does more than transfer HTML documents. Although HTML comprehension is required of WWW clients, HTTP is used for retrieving documents in an unbounded and extensible set of formats. To achieve this, the client sends a list of the formats it can handle and the server relies with data in any of those formats that it can produce.

This function allows proprietary formats to be used between consenting programs in private without the need for standardization of those formats. This is important for both for high end users that share data in sophisticated forms and as a method for formats that have yet to be invented.

HTTP is an Internet protocol. It is similar in its readable, text based style to the file transfer and network news protocols that have been used to transfer files and news on the internet for many years. Unlike these protocols, however, HTTP is stateless. The stateless model is efficient when a link from one object may lead equally well to an object stored on the same server.

The purpose of a reference such as a URL is that it should always refer to the “same” object. This also makes a stateless protocol appropriate, as it returns results based on the client. The HTTP request from the client starts with an object request method and the URL.