Not even 5 minutes ago, I was logged into GMail when I got this application error. I retyped gmail.com in the address bar and even pressed the refresh button because hitting “F5” multiple times didn’t work. The first thing I do when I think my internet connection has gone down is check to see if Google.com works; because if that simple homepage doesn’t load, then Im sure nothing else will.

After loading Google.com, I noticed something really different. The words, “SSL” & “beta”; I haven’t seen the word beta on Google since 2000. I heard about secure search from one of the Search Engine marketing blogs I subscribe to; probably techcrunch either a week or two ago, so when I saw the logo, it hit me! “ahhh yes!” That explains why I got SSLapped out of GMail ;)

If you haven’t heard about Google’s new SSL (which stands for Secure Socket Layer) or Secure Search, you can read about it here from Google’s support.

Here’s basically what it does:

“With Google search over SSL, you can have an end-to-end encrypted search solution between your computer and Google. This secured channel helps protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party. This provides you with a more secure and private search experience.”

In the support page, it states that if you want to search using this new beta feature, use: https://encrypted.google.com, but using https://www.google.com does the same thing!

So next time you type Google in your address bar, add a bit of encryption and see what hits you! ;) or at least won’t hit you because they can’t see you, you’re encrypted!

Thanks Google!