Logged in Google users who do not follow the news as closely as the majority of Ghacks visitors may have noticed that Google started to redirect their searches on google.com from http to https automatically.
While that is certainly not a issue on most systems, it could lead to issues on some. If you are experiencing pages that do not load, broken applications or other issues you may want to fix or reverse the change.
Before I’m showing you how this is done I’d like to explain what’s happening.
Google recently announced that they would enable https, also known as encrypted, search for all logged in users that visit the main search engine google.com.
Logged in users who load http://www.google.com/ are automatically redirected to https://www.google.com/. Encrypted search can be beneficial as it encrypts the traffic that is send to and received from Google. This means that no one in your computer network (e.g. admins, your boss, your ISP) can see what you are doing on the Google website. They still see that you are on Google, and will see the sites that you click on though.
Using secure connections is an optional feature. On my PC, it is already enabled in the Chrome web browser but not in Firefox. Google has added a preference in the Global Search preferences to enable or disable the secure connection feature.
Google users who notice automatic redirects can prevent this from happening in the search settings. To do that they need to click on the options icon in the upper right corner of the screen (next to the profile name) and select Search Settings from the context menu that opens up.
They then need to scroll down until they find the Secure Connection setting.
Secure connections are enabled if the box is checked. To disable simply remove the check mark and click Save Preferences. This puts an end to redirects to the https version of search.
Update: It appears as if Google has removed the option to disable the redirection to https in the search options. There is no option available anymore to force your Google connections to use http instead of https.
Related Articles:
Force Google HTTPS SearchGoogle Will Move Https Search To New Domain
Google SSL HTTPS Search
Google To Enable HTTPS For Internation Search Users In The Coming Weeks
Google Rolls Out Https Search For Logged In Users
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From FF 3.6.23, my Goggle searches come up in HTTP (not HTTPS). I cannot find the “Secured Connections anywhere in my settings.
Jojo it is not activated for everyone yet. I for instance see it in Chrome but not in Firefox (logged in).
Why would you use un-secure (none https) searches with Firefox ? do you remember Firesheep ?
I use HTTPS Everywhere addon on FF.
Maybe it breaks one of your add-ons?
If HTTPS breaks an addon, remove the addon as it is not secure.
Use https on public networks? Absolutely! If it slows down your connection at home I don’t see any reason to not use http if your connection is secured. Firesheep……could care less on a private secured network!!!
I wish other Google services that use SSL (Docs, Picasa, Bookmarks) had this option to disable HTTPS too. It makes my browsing slower.
Than replace the browser , but don’t disable https.
I… I don’t get it.. why would you disable HTTPS??????
Searching with HTTP is a bit more secure. Especially when encountering phishing sites.
“Searching with HTTP is a bit more secure” ? where exactly did you learn this ?
No, it does very little to make things “more secure”. The only thing that is encrypted is the search string sent to Google; the links that you subsequently click-on will usually *not* specify use of https so you are back to square one.
The only thing that “secure” Google searching prevents is the monitoring of your search activity by an intermediate entity (e.g. your ISP, your company IT department). But even they might be able to figure it out once you start clicking on links returned by the Google search engine.
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I cannot find that checkbox in the google search settings :| Awkward.
neither can I. switching from ie to firefox I guess…
Hello, when I click on the Secure Settings link, there is no Secure Connection Setting. I have Internet Explorer Version: 8.0.6001.18702 if that makes any difference. So could you be able to tell me what other way I can change this https feature please?
Same as Claudia, no option to check. Just going to google and searching, it’s really a pain to have to close 2 popup windows and get redirected from http://www.google.com to https://. I’m not the only one here in town starting to see this silly popup. Using IE 8 and windows 7.
This just started withing the last month. I thought it was my machine, until someone else asked me why they were getting 2 popups.
Martin,
I do not see the option you discuss either, running:
Chrome v 16.0.912.77 m
FireFox v 10.0
Internet Explorer v 8.0.6001.18702
Would you please retest this article under a few different browsers?
Jorge
It appears as if Google has removed the option from search settings. I update the article right away.