Google SSL Search/Google Secure Search

SSL Search 

With Google search over SSL, you can have an end-to-end encrypted search solution between your computer and Google. This secured channel helps protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party. This provides you with a more secure and private search experience.
To use search over SSL, visit https://encrypted.google.com  each time you perform a search. Note that only Google Web Search and Google Images are available over SSL, so other products like Google News and Google Maps are not currently available over SSL. When you're searching over SSL, these properties may not appear in the left panel.

What is SSL?

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is a protocol that helps provide secure Internet communications for services like web browsing, e-mail, instant messaging, and other data transfers. When you search over SSL, your search queries and search traffic are encrypted so they can't be read by any intermediary party such as employers and internet service providers (ISPs).

What can I expect from search over SSL?

Here's how searching over SSL is different from regular Google search:

• SSL encrypts the communication channel between Google and a searcher's computer. When search traffic is encrypted, it can't be read by third parties trying to access the connection between a searcher's computer and Google's servers. Note that the SSL protocol does have some limitations — more details are below.
• When you use SSL search, the browser typically does not send referrer  information to any HTTP links you visit (but the browser will still send referrer information to any HTTPS links). By clicking on a search result that takes you to an HTTP site, you could disable any customizations that the website provides based on the referrer information.
• At this time, search over SSL is supported only on Google Web Search and Google Images. We will continue to work to support other Google products. All features that are not supported have been removed from the left panel and the row of links at the top. You'll continue to see integrated results like maps, and clicking those results will take you out of encrypted search mode.
• Your Google experience using SSL search might be slightly slower than you're used to because your computer needs to first establish a secure connection with Google.

Note that SSL search does not reduce the data that Google receives and logs when you search, or change the listing of these terms in your 

Here are a few things you should know when you search using this new secure search service from Google:

• You won’t see links to offerings like Image Search and Maps.
• Your browsing experience might be slightly slower than your regular Google search experience.
• Clicking on any of the search results could take you out of SSL mode.