Here's my opinion.
HTTP is connectionless.
Quoting from RFC2068 for HTTP/1.1 "
"HTTP communication usually takes place over TCP/IP connections. The default port is TCP 80, but other ports can be used. This does not
preclude HTTP from being implemented on top of any other protocol on the Internet, or on other networks. HTTP only presumes a reliable transport; any protocol that provides such guarantees can be used;
In HTTP/1.0, most implementations used a new connection for each request/response exchange. In HTTP/1.1, a connection may be used for one or more request/response exchanges, although connections may be closed for a variety of reasons "
TCP/IP has two parts :
TCP is connection-based and IP is connection-less
In summary then :
HTTP is a connectionless protocol that transmits a request, receives a response and then terminates the connection. HTTP 1.1 allows for maintaining the connection for performance reasons...but there is nothing that stops the server from timing out or alloting your connection to service another request.