Encrypted websites are getting rewarded by Google with a little bit higher ranking in Internet searches, the search company says.
That could be a huge boost to sites using the HTTPS encryption that delivers an increased security for those browsing their pages. The move may be a push by Google to get more companies and sites looking to make the move to the more secure comms protocol.
According to the company, Google has been testing the search-ranking algorithms it currently uses and has been looking, via the trials, at how the signals delivered from encrypted sites function with the algorithm itself, which Google has tweaked to give those HTTPS sites a higher ranking.
The company says the boost in ranking is minimal.
"We've seen positive results, so we're starting to use HTTPS as a ranking signal," Google webmaster trends analysts Zineb Ait Bahajji and Gary Illyes wrote in a blog post. "For now it's only a very lightweight signal -- affecting fewer than 1 percent of global queries, and carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content -- while we give webmasters time to switch to HTTPS.
"But over time, we may decide to strengthen it, because we'd like to encourage all website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS to keep everyone safe on the web," they added.
These encrypted sites offer additional preventive security against hackers, thereby keeping site users' data safer, Tech Times reports. The HTTPS protocol is also known as HTTP over TLS (Transport Layer Security). TLS includes Secure Sockets Layers (SSL), which is a security protocol that requires certificates to verify the authenticity and security of the site.
As a result of the new information, Google will publish a best-practices guide within the next few weeks to help users not make mistakes when moving to HTTPS.
The company is also developing an encryption tool, End-to-End, as a plug-in for its Chrome web browser. The plug-in will encrypt data leaving the Chrome browser until the message's intended recipient decrypts it, thus making it impervious to hacking while in transit.
With security a major concern for online users following the release of information on the U.S. government spying on average citizens and a number of companies seeing their systems breached by hackers, Google is aiming to move the Internet toward more encryption to better serve privacy demands.
