Previously, I wrote a post describing the security and privacy issues that may arise when using clear text Google queries: Cyber oppression and the problem of clear text search engine keyword requests.
A Google R&D post has now announced that Google searches can be encrypted using SSL: Extending SSL to Google search. Google's new SSL-enabled Beta site is here: https://www.google.com.
My suggestion: Currently, when a user clicks a cached snapshot link in Google's search engine results list, a URL displays that contains in clear text both the 1) website URL, and the 2) user's search keywords.
Example:
Search keywords: [ski equipment]
An example clear text URL of an arbitrary website clicked from Google's new SSL-enabled search results: http://www.skis.com
An example clear text URL of the related cached web site clicked from the same SSL-enabled Google's search engine results: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:t3SmcuNSLKIJ:www.skis.com/+ski+equipment&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk
Google's cached website versions often are not up to date, and they usually do not display an entire web site. However, some users may prefer viewing them to reduce the chance of governments, ISPs, and other potential eavesdropping entities from tracking their website visits.
It would enhance the security and privacy of these users if Google encrypted the URLs it displays for its cached web sites.
Here is my SETI research: http://setilinguistics.blogspot.com
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