Google introduces Encrypted Web Search

Google announced the beta release of its new secure search engine this Friday. This search engine provides you with ssl encryption to protect your searches from interception, making it the first search engine to provide such a feature. All you have to do is use https instead of http to access this service.

One of the reasons why this service is not being provided by other search giants is because it consumes a lot of processing power to encrypt and decrypt the data and most importantly search queries are not really considered private or something worth protecting from interception. People who need such a protection could just use Tor to stay anonymous and protect their search privacy.

Althought I still don't see many people having any need to encrypt their searches but it still might be essential to a few and having an option is always good. Your browser might take sometime to connect to the https server but you probably won't even notice it. This option is not available for image or map searches.

Secure SSL was earlier an option for Gmail too which was made default in January this year "But it's not going to be the default option, at this point. There's a lot of work to be done before we get there.", said Muarli Viswanathan, a Google Search Product manager.

Who will use Secure Google Search?

In case you are wondering who will be the ones using this feature, then let me list a few of them coming to my mind:

• Chinese or people of other countries/organization who face high data survelliance will be benefited by this feature. Due to encryption, their searched queries won't be visible.
• Its a well known fact that although all the information being searched is available to all, but looking at one's search queries, you can easily guess what one's upto. So, business officials, government agencies or even terrorists will be benefited from it.