Archive for June, 2010

Google Chrome How-To: Encrypt Your Searches

Posted on: June 27th, 2010 by Rabbit

Google Chrome has quickly become my new favorite browser. It’s simple, fast, and minimalist. The location bar — also known as the "one bar to rule them all" — accepts input intelligently; navigating to URL’s or searching based on your input. By default your search input is passed off to Google standard search (google.com) but Google also offers encrypted search over SSL (encrypted.google.com). The encrypted search is incredibly fast! It operates exactly the same as the standard search but all of your communication with Google is secured and private. I will show you how to encrypt your searches by default through Google Chrome so you can secure your information without having to think about it. 

1) Launch Google Chrome and open the Preferences dialog.

2) From within the Basics tab click the "Manage" button in the "Default Search Engine" section.

3) A dialog will pop up that shows all the search engines that Google Chrome has installed for you. These entries pop up as you type the associated keyword in the location bar. We’ll need to add an entry for Google Encrypted Search so click the "+" at the bottom of the dialog.

4) You’ll need to enter 3 things here:  Name, Keyword, and URL.

  • Name: Google (Encrypted)
  • Keyword: google
  • URL: https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=%s

NOTE: Make sure you use HTTPS (with an "S")

5) Click OK. Now, you’ve added the search engine but you will only be able to use it if you type the "google" keyword in the location bar first. We want to use it by default so find the entry that says "Google (Encrypted)", click it once, then click the "Make Default" button.

6) That’s it! Let’s test out the result. Close all the dialogs and get back to the main Google Chrome window. Start typing a search query into the location bar. You should see a suggestion pop down that contains the phrase "Google (Encrypted)"

7) When you search you’ll notice the location bar is highlighted to indicate a secure connection and the Google logo has an "SSL" lock. Now when you search all your communication with Google will be secured by default. Enjoy!