Go's garbage collector uses a mark-and-sweep algorithm. It starts by marking all reachable objects and then sweeping away the unmarked, unreferenced objects. Some key characteristics include concurrency (it can run concurrently with the application), low latency (it minimizes stop-the-world pauses), and generational collection (it separates objects into young and old generations). Go's garbage collector helps manage memory automatically, reducing the risk of memory leaks and manual memory management.

The go-analyze tool can be used to analyze the performance of Go code line-by-line. This tool is valuable for identifying performance bottlenecks at the code level, helping developers pinpoint areas that need optimization. It provides insights into function execution times, hot paths, and more, enabling efficient performance tuning in Go applications.

In a RESTful API, the GET HTTP method is used to read a specific resource. This is a safe and idempotent operation, meaning it should not modify the resource and can be called multiple times without changing the resource's state. When a client sends a GET request to a resource's URL, the server responds with the representation of that resource, typically in the form of JSON or XML data.

To specify a specific version of a dependency using Go Modules, you use the 'require' directive in the go.mod file. You list the module path and the desired version, ensuring that the version adheres to semantic versioning (SemVer). This allows Go Modules to fetch the correct version of the dependency when you build your project. This precise versioning is essential for ensuring consistency and predictability in your project's dependencies.