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It's long been known that you can append an "s" to the end of the "http" when dialing up Google's Gmail or Docs applications, to name a few, in order to gain access to an SSL-encrypted version of the services.

SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is a kind of connection that's akin to a tunnel between your system and a site—the two entities negotiate authentication and encryption mechanisms in order to wrap an extra layer of security around the communications between the two.

Google's recently expanded its SSL-backed site offerings to include the entirety of its primary search application, and it's still as easy to access as typing in "" instead of "http." The benefits thereof include an increased ability to prevent any kind of interception of your searches by a third-party site or service. However, Google itself will still collect the usual data it collects whenever a search is run—to "improve your search quality and to provide better service," says software engineer Evan Roseman in a post to the Google Blog.

Also, any search performed using the encrypted Google page won't send search information to any sites that are clicked through on the corresponding results page. Thus, any given site on the Web won't be able to tell what keywords were used by a visitor to find the site, let alone the fact that the search was performed via Google. It's a slippery slope that's sure to put a nail in the shoe of Web marketers—perhaps part of the reason why Google isn't just defaulting everyone over to an SSL-backed version of its service from the get-go.

In fact, the encrypted Google search falls under the same "beta" tag as many Google services. Here's why, according to Roseman:

"First, it currently covers only the core Google web search product. To help avoid misunderstanding, when you search using SSL, you won't see links to offerings like Image Search and Maps that, for the most part, don't support SSL at this time. Also, since SSL connections require additional time to set up the encryption between your browser and the remote web server, your experience with search over SSL might be slightly slower than your regular Google search experience."

"What won't change," he adds, "is that you will still get the same great search results."

To ensure that you're searching with an SSL-backed connection, be sure to look for the little lock icon in your browser—the same one you'd see when surfing a conventional online banking site, for example—when hitting up Google's main page.