What Does HTTP-EQUIV Mean?
HTTP is the protocol used by the server and browser for information passed between them. Of course the full definition is more complicated than that, but this brief one is sufficient to understand http-equiv. Usually, you don’t get to see the fields of the HTTP communication between the server and browser. But here’s an example of what’s typically sent. HTTP/1.0 200 OK Server: My-server/1.1 Date: Tuesday, 4-Jun-02 01:22:04 GMT Last-modified: Sunday, 2-Jun-02 10:44:53 GMT Content-length: 6372 Content-type: text/html This is followed by the regular HTML file. When a Meta tag says http-equiv, it’s informing the world that the information it’s presenting is the equivalent of an HTTP field, and can be used as such by any system that requires HTTP information. It’s something that’s frequently done because it’s far easier to write an http-equiv than it is to create a field directly in HTTP. It’s worth noting that HTTP information is sometimes ignored by proxy caches. They are in the business
