Encrypted Search as a feature was launched by Google in 2010. It blocked others from knowing what data is being transferred between your computer and Google.
Read on to know more about encryption and how you can get an SSL certificate for your website to make it secure and easy to rank on search.
What is encryption?
Encryption is a process to disguise your data so that only the concerned party can understand it. No other third party — human, application or even a search engine is not allowed to access the data and understand the data. Only the sender and the receiver can communicate and understand the meaning and context of the information which is being exchanged. Both the sender and the receiver have the cryptographic key which is a set of mathematical values that both parties agree upon.
Thus the key is the main factor in encryption. With the key all data has meaning and without it the data is meaningless and jibberish.
Now you might ask a question, how does encryption work on the internet? When one asks such a question, he/she is generally talking about the use of SSL certificate by search engines. In short, SSL is an industry-standard security protocol and provides a layer of security between the browser and the server. SSL encrypts the data flowing across the internet thereby protecting it from malicious parties.
Google and other search engines have now begun to take the SSL certification into consideration while deciding the rankings on their webpage. So, it is imperative that as website owners you should quickly get a free SSL certificate for your website. In this detailed article, we have explained how you can buy an SSL certificate for your website for no cost.
Also read: Is Discord encrypted? Security and Privacy explained
Anonymous browsing vs encrypted search
You should not get confused with these two terms. In fact, these terms are not related at all. Anonymous browsing doesn’t encrypt the data. It just blocks the cookies and history so that the search remains anonymous.
On the other hand, encrypted search means that the connection between your computer and the search engine is secure. It has nothing to do with anonymity. Your search history will be visible and the cookies are working in the background.
If you are concerned that Google is taking too much of your data, you can try out these Google alternatives.
3 Encrypted Search alternatives to Google that you can try
Google is a big data repository of the world and sells data to advertisers for targeted ad delivery. If you are a privacy-conscious individual and do not want to give more data to Google, you can opt for the following search engines:
DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo does not need an introduction. If you care about your security and privacy on the internet, you should definitely use DuckDuckGo as your go-to search engine. It does not collect user data and device information and does not track you.
You can also add the extension to Google Chrome and can also download the app from any authentic online app store.
Ecosia
Are you having both environmental and privacy concerns? Then this is the search engine for you. Ecosia plants trees from the profits it generates when people search on this platform.
Moreover, your searches are encrypted and you can turn off the small amounts of data that the company do track.
Search Encrypt
This search engine is loaded with privacy features such as Perfect Forward Secrecy which keeps your data private and encrypted. You can also download the extension of Search Encrypt on Google Chrome and Firefox.
Privacy is good and necessary, but it should not hamper information delivery. While using this search engine, we faced some issues like when we searched for Candid.Technology, we got many results sans our website’s link. On the second page, we saw something related to our publication — our Youtube channel.
Also read: Internet Safety: HTTP vs HTTPS; Should you trust HTTPS?
