In a nod to school administrators, Google has moved the encrypted search engine it launched in May to a new Web address. According to Google, the move was made to prevent users from bypassing content filters and accessing adult content.
Google has moved the encrypted version of its search engine to a new Web address.
Though the old URL (
https://www.google.com)
still works, Google announced recently that it
launched encrypted.google.com in a nod to school
administrators who have blocked encrypted search for their students.
"We recently launched a beta version of
encrypted (SSL) search at
https://www.google.com
to prevent people from intercepting our users' search terms and
results," blogged Dave Girouard, president of Google Enterprise.
"However, because encrypted search creates an obscured channel between
a user's computer and Google, users who go to
https://www.google.com can bypass some schools' content filters. This can make it hard for schools to stop students from accessing adult content."
A side effect of blocking encrypted search is that it also blocks
other services hosted on the secure URL, such as Google Apps for
Education, Girouard noted. As an alternative, he advised schools to use
Google's SafeSearch lock feature to keep adult content out of search
results, though he acknowledged that may be impractical due to the
sheer number of computers at some institutions.
"We're working hard to address this issue as quickly as
possible and in a few weeks we will move encrypted search to a new
hostname - so schools can limit access to SSL search without disrupting
other Google services, like Google Apps for Education," he blogged.
"Longer term, we are exploring other options like moving authentication
to its own hostname so that we can return encrypted search to
https://www.google.com."
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