CybersecurityGoogle making search more secure
Google is enhancing its default search service for signed-in users; over the next few weeks, many users will find themselves redirected to https://www.google.com (note the extra “s”) when they are signed in to their Google account; this change encrypts their search queries and Google’s results page
Google said it has worked hard over the past few years to increase its search services’ use of an encryption protocol called SSL, as well as encourage the industry to adopt stronger security standards. For example, Google made SSL the default setting in Gmail in January 2010 and introduced an encrypted search service four months later. Other leading Web companies have also added SSL support in recent months.
The official Google blog reports that as search becomes an increasingly customized experience, the company recognizes the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results it delivers. As a result, Google is enhancing its default search service for signed-in users. Over the next few weeks, many users will find themselves redirected to https://www.google.com (note the extra “s”) when they are signed in to their Google account. This change encrypts their search queries and Google’s results page. “This is especially important when you’re using an unsecured Internet connection, such as a WiFi hotspot in an Internet café,” the blog notes. Users can also navigate to https://www.google.com directly if they are signed out or if they do not have a Google account.
What does this mean for sites that receive clicks from Google search results? The company blog says that when users search from https://www.google.com, Web sites they visit from Google’s organic search listings will still know that users came from Google, but will not receive information about each individual query. They can also receive an aggregated list of the top 1,000 search queries that drove traffic to their site for each of the past thirty days through Google Webmaster Tools. This information helps webmasters keep more accurate statistics about their user traffic.
If users choose to click on an ad appearing on Google’s search results page, their browser will continue to send the relevant query over the network to enable advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their campaigns and to improve the ads and offers they present to users.
The company says that as it continues to add more support for SSL across Google’s products and services, it hopes to see similar action from other Web sites. “That’s why our researchers publish information about SSL and provide advice to help facilitate broader use of the protocol,” the blog notes. “We hope that [the] move to increase the privacy and security of your Web searches is only the next step in a broader industry effort to employ SSL encryption more widely and effectively,” the blog concludes.
