SPDY

Updated: 05/01/2023 by Computer Hope
SPDY in blue lettering.

SPDY is a network protocol developed by Google in July 2012. The Chrome browser stopped supporting SPDY in May 2016, and Apple deprecated the protocol in January 2019. Pronounced "speedy," the protocol was designed to improve upon HTTP/1.1 to reduce the loading time of web pages. It achieved this goal by compressing HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) headers, multiplexing transfers to avoid "head of the line" delays, and prioritizing requests to improve how documents are rendered in the browser.

SPDY was the basis of the HTTP/2 protocol, an open standard introduced on May 14, 2015.

Network terms