Google makes search more secure

As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, Google wants to concentrate more on protecting the personalized search results they deliver. As a result, Google says that they are enhancing their default search experience for signed-in users. It is possible that over the next few weeks many users will find themselves redirected to the Google homepage when they are signed in to their Google Accounts. This change will encrypt user search queries and Google results page. Google says that this is especially important when people are using an unsecured Internet connection, such as WiFi hotspots in coffee shops. Users can also navigate to the Google homepage directly if they are not signed in or do not have a Google Account.

What does this mean for sites that receive clicks from Google search results? When users are searching from the Google hompage, the websites they visit from Google organic search listings will still know that a user came from Google, however won’t receive any information about each individual query. Websites will be able to receive an aggregated list of top 1000 search queries that drove traffic for the past 30 days through the Google Webmaster Tools. This information will help websites to keep accurate statistics about their user traffic.

If a user will choose to click on an ad appearing on the Google search results page, the user’s 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.

Google says that they are continuing to add more support for SSL across their products and services, and hopes to see the same effort from other websites. That is why Google  publishes information about SSL and provides advice to help ease broader use of the protocol.