Dear Google - Why Encrypt My Search???

So the tech headlines state “Google rolls out encrypted Web search option”; and with a simple move to https for all web searching, a company is sending shockwaves through URL filtering engines all over the world.   Not that most filtering mechanisms don’t offer SSL capable filtering, but it is a more sophisticated deployment; and one where most setups would need hardware acceleration to keep up.   According to Google, image and video searches will not be offered through the initial encrypted solution, but this will just be a matter of time.   This is a nice slick tie in the Google suite of products, from email, to Google Docs and at a high level it definitely makes sense.   The question posed by this is “how do you now keep up with URL Filtering through schools, the general masses through their home connections, and small to medium sized businesses that rarely incorporate SSL filtering into their solutions?” How do you now scale up an Enterprise that does not offer the acceleration capabilities needed for all their users who now decide they need SSL without really understanding why?

Google is making the move to try and end the criticism it has been receiving regarding how they handle their users’ data and the buzz related to how it they been leaking information through the Street Car wifi; but you have to wonder if this is something that would tie into their purchase and journey into the world of cloud based filtering options.   Now that companies are cutting back on staff size, decreasing their IT budgets and looking for savings across the board; a hosted infrastructure through a 3^rd party makes sense, but don’t herd me into a solution by changing the game to your benefit.   Don’t introduce a virus into the wild and then charge me to clean it up (and we know this never happens), and don’t introduce vulnerabilities, and use fear and uncertainty to force me buy your software. 

So I guess we come to the question, “why is Google now offering an encrypted search engine?”  Is my search on the Internet for the latest YouTube hit, or my search to see if I can find that dress for my daughter in green versus pink, really something I should be concerned about?   Are people putting their credit card numbers or social security numbers into Google Search to see what comes up?  Or, is Google upset that they were called out on gathering information after they initially denied the allegation?   Maybe it has something to do with an eastern country, with billions of people (and we will keep this country nameless) and how they filter search results to their population.  Do you think it will be expensive to filter billions of people over SSL?  Do you think opening advertising to this population, which by the way is extremely limited today in what they can view through Google, is a smart business decision?  Is Google using this as way to push users to a hosted URL filtering solution, that they just happen to have, and is this purely in Google’s best interest from a business perspective and not necessarily in the best interest of the end user?   Read the news, read the articles and you decide, and ask yourself why you need it and in whose interest does it serve.   Everyone loves Google, but does Google really love you back?