If at some point during your internet browsing you came across the address https://encrypted.google.com/ you might have wondered if it is different from the regular address https://google.com/.
As it seems at first glance, there are no differences as both addresses use secure HTTPS connections.
But if you pay closer attention, the encrypted.google.com page does not have the Doodle and the Google applications icon.
But there are also some differences that aren't visible. According to Google, the difference is in the handling of referral information when you click on an ad. Let's take a look at what that means:
Before we explain what each link does, let's try to explain what the term referral information means and what it can be:
An “http referer” or simply “referer” is the point from which visits to a website originate. Examples: search engines, other websites, links, advertisements, banners, emails, connections embedded in software.
And every time someone visits a site, one of the pieces of information recorded by that site is where the visitor came from. This is usually recorded in the form of a URL and stored in the “referer log.”
However, there is a lot of information that travels across the Internet along with the previous address. This includes: your operating system type, browser, the font encoding you use, and various other information from cookies stored on your system.
1. By clicking on an ad:
At https://goοgle.com: Google will take you to an HTTP redirect page where it will append the search query with the referrer information.
At https://encrypted.google.com: If the advertiser is using an HTTP connection, Google will not let them know your query. If the advertiser is using HTTPS, they will receive the referral information normally (including the search query).
2. By clicking on a normal search result:
At https://google.com: If the website uses HTTP protocol, Google will take you to an HTTP redirect page and will not append the search query with the referrer information. They will only give the name of the website you came from Google. If it uses HTTPS, it will get the referrer information normally.
At https://encrypted.google.com: If the page you clicked on in the search results uses HTTP, it doesn't get any information about where you're coming from or what query you're normally referring to.
If you are concerned about protecting your privacy, there are various solutions you can use. VPN, proxy, yesterday we announced the developer version of Opera that offers a free VPN, or the well-known HTTPS Everywhere.
If you know or notice any other difference between the two URLs, you can mention it in the comments.
