If your a techno – geek like myself, you are fully aware of all the bad press that Facebook and Google have received about their privacy issues. All big companies should have this on their radar as respecting visitor’s privacy has become a huge topic and must take steps to ensure their trust if they want their business.
So in May, Google took this to heart and launched a secure form of Google search using what’s called a Secure Socket Layer (SSL). Now instead of going to your standard http://www.google.com, you can turn that http:// into an https:// and you will be at Google’s new secure search service (https://www.google.com/).
Really, it is the same way you would log into any secure website such as your online banking web site. Your data will be encrypted, meaning that the only server that can understand the data you send out is Google’s server. Yes, this is a good thing but what does Google do with your data? OK, that is a totally different rand and article. Let’s get re-focused on the topic at hand.
This service is currently in beta versions and SSL support hasn’t been added to Google’s additional search features like Image Search or Google Maps. Another important thing to keep in mind is that the service is going to be slightly slower than you’re used to because of the resource intensive nature of encrypting all the data, though this will not likely be very noticeable if at all with how concerned Google is with speed these days. There are a few important points to note about using the secure Google site:
- Your data is only private from third party viewers, not Google. Google will still maintain your search information as usual. Like we talked about before, what Google does with your information is up to them. Really, no surprise there and if you implement any of Google’s “free” or paid services you know they have your data and use it to their discretion.
- When you click on the results in search you will no longer be in SSL mode. Where you go after that you are on your own. No big deal really as you have been doing this for years.
- When you leave a secure connection you do not carry the referral with you from Google. THIS IS HUGE! you will have no idea as an SEO specialist that this traffic was driven by your efforts! May experts have been saying for over a year now how SERPs have been dead and you need to count your SEO efforts by what your web analytics tell you. This can put a real monkey wrench in that theory depending on how many people start to use the secure Google.
If you are a Gmail user then you are already using Google’s secure technology but be on the lookout for other Google services like Image search, Maps, and other services becoming secure soon as well. Google already has secure Gmail and has hinted it would begin working on secure versions of its other services like Maps, and Image Search so look out for these in the future.
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If you are into marketing online then it is without a doubt that you have a Google Account™ so you simply need to add the maps feature to your account. Thank You:).