Search more securely with encrypted Google web search

As people spend more time on the Internet, they want greater control over who has access to their online communications. Many Internet services use what are known as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connections to encrypt information that travels between your computer and their service. Usually recognized by a web address starting with “https” or a browser lock icon, this technology is regularly used by online banking sites and e-commerce websites. Other sites may also implement SSL in a more limited fashion, for example, to help protect your passwords when you enter your login information.

Years ago Google added SSL encryption to products ranging from Gmail to Google Docs and others, and we continue to enable encryption on more services. Like banking and e-commerce sites, Google’s encryption extends beyond login passwords to the entire service. This session-wide encryption is a significant privacy advantage over systems that only encrypt login pages and credit card information. Early this year, we took an important step forward by making SSL the default setting for all Gmail users. And today we’re gradually rolling out a new choice to search more securely at https://www.google.com.

When you search on https://www.google.com, an encrypted connection is created between your browser and Google. This secured channel helps protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party on your network. The service includes a modified logo to help indicate that you’re searching using SSL and that you may encounter a somewhat different Google search experience, but as always, remember to check the start of the address bar for “https” and your browser lock indicators:

Today’s release comes with a “beta” label for a few reasons. 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 is that you will still get the same great search results.

A few notes to remember: Google will still maintain search data to improve your search quality and to provide better service. Searching over SSL doesn’t reduce the data sent to Google — it only hides that data from third parties who seek it. And clicking on any of the web results, including Google universal search results for unsupported services like Google Images, could take you out of SSL mode. Our hope is that more websites and services will add support for SSL to help create a better and more consistent experience for you.

We think users will appreciate this new option for searching. It’s a helpful addition to users’ online privacy and security, and we’ll continue to add encryption support for more search offerings. To learn more about using the feature, refer to our help article on search over SSL.


Source : Google webmaster tools blog spot

How To Increase Your Followers With Twitter

This article discusses some useful tips to help you succeed with Twitter.

How Twitter Works

In order to take advantage of the opportunities the social site has to offer, you should know first how it works.

It is quite simple – you sign up for an account, which allows you to post short messages (tweets) to people who have agreed to receive them (your followers). This in turn provides you with a totally free way to share your views and advertise your offer in various ways. If you do it right, you can make some healthy profits out of it.

How To Increase Your Twitter Followers Fast

The first step towards twitter success is to get as much people as possible to become your followers. This is especially important if you are going to market various products and you want them to get massive exposure.

There is no point in posting your tweets to only a few people, unless they are raving fans or dedicated followers.

Here are 4 effective ways to get more people to follow you on Twitter.

1) Spread The Word To All Your Contacts.

Collaborate with your friends and acquaintances to spread the word about each other’s Twitter accounts. This is a great option if you are an active member of an internet community that is at the same time a distinctive target group.

Let’s say you have a music blog with regular readers. If you are constantly writing in various dedicated online forums, you can ask fellow members to become your Twitter followers.

If you have a list of subscribers, you could invite them to receive your messages. If you have a website, you could post a note informing visitors about your Twitter account.

2) Provide A Specific Free Service Using Twitter.

This can be an alert for sports games scores, for shopping discounts or the latest gossip and news in a specific area.

It is best to choose a bit broader subject and have an appropriate username presenting your service. You have to put some extra effort in this as it requires regular work, but you can readily do it from your home or office.

3) Add Your Twitter Account In Twitter Directories.

You can increase your chances of getting targeted followers by adding your Twitter account in the appropriate categories of Twitter directories.

Some of the most popular ones include:

http://www.twellow.com/
http://justtweetit.com/directory/
http://wefollow.com/
http://www.loadedweb.com/twitter/
http://www.tweetfind.com/
http://mrtweet.com/
http://mytwitterdirectory.com/
http://tweeplepages.com/

All it takes is a couple of minutes to add yourself into each Twitter directory; and you only need to do it one time to get permanent exposure.

4) Follow Other People In Your Niche Or Field Of Interest.

When you follow Twitters in your niche, they tend to follow you back. It’s the law of reciprocity at work.

Where do you find them? Browse through the Twitter directories above and follow people who are in the same field, or have the same interests, as yours.

Source : Seo Latestnews

Improve in Google Webmaster Tools

 

              A good news for site owners who are frequent users of the Top search queries feature in Webmaster Tools. Google is now providing more detailed data for each individual search query. Previously they just provide reported the average position at which site’s pages appeared in the search results for a particular page. Now with one click on a search query in the Top search queries report we can see a breakdown of the number of impressions and the amount of click through for each position that site’s pages appeared at in the search results, average position of site associated with that query.

Impressions are the number of times that site’s pages appeared in the search results for the query. Clickthrough is the number of times searchers clicked on that query’s search results to visit a page from site. In addition to impressions and click through numbers, we’ll also see a list of site pages that were linked to from the search results for that search query.

Google Webmasters shortened "Top Search Queries" to be just "Search Queries" in addition to the name change the Search Queries has several new updates, as showing an "Average position" column right on the main Search Queries page. This provides a quick at-a-glance way to see where site is showing in the search results for specific queries. The other change is that showing a "Displaying" number for Impressions and Clicks. This number represents a total count of the data displayed in the Search Queries table. The number in bold appearing just above it is a total count of all queries including the "long tail" of queries which are not displayed in the Search Queries table. When the "Displaying" number is not visible, such as when you select a specific country from the "All countries" drop-down menu, then the bold number is the total count of the data displayed in the Search Queries table.

The other addition made to Search Queries is a "Starred" tab. Next to each Query on the Search Queries page there is now a click able star icon. You can click the star icon for all of the queries that are of most interest. All of the queries that "star" will be consolidated under the Starred tab providing a super easy way to view just the queries care about.

Source:  Google webmaster Blogspot