How Network Admins Can Turn Off Google HTTPS Secure

Oct 7, 2013 - 8:13 am 10 by
Filed Under Google

Google SSLAs you know, Google originally announced SSL search back in 2011 where it would impact "less than 10% of their users." Now, it is impacting over 90% of users and thus showing [notprovided] to webmasters and marketers about 90% of the time.

That being said, network administrators and ISPs can do something about it. You can force the non-SSL version of Google to your users. How?

As Jessica Schwartz from Google (no relation), said in a Google Web Search Help thread, "there is an option for No-SSL." She links to this page for schools that specifies the configuration change the network administrator needs to make to prevent SSL searches.

To utilize the no SSL option for your network, configure the DNS entry for www.google.com to be a CNAME for nosslsearch.google.com.

We will not serve SSL search results for requests that we receive on this VIP. If we receive a search request over port 443, the certificate handshake will complete successfully, but we will then redirect the user to a non-SSL search experience. The first time a user is redirected, they will be shown a notice that SSL has been disabled by the network administrator.

Customization and personalization is dependent on SSL availability, thus some features may be affected. Utilizing the NoSSLSearch VIP will not affect other Google services outside of Search. Logging into Google Apps and authenticating to different services will continue to work (and will occur over SSL).

I see no reason why this has to apply just to schools. You can probably do this at your home and your company. And I am sure ISPs can do this as well. Will it happen? Nah, but we can dream.

Forum discussion at Google Web Search Help.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: April 28, 2025

Apr 28, 2025 - 10:00 am
Google

Deposition: Google Used Search Signals & Data To Train Gemini AI Models

Apr 28, 2025 - 7:41 am
Bing Search

Bing Copilot Answer More Videos Section

Apr 28, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google

Google Tests New Shipping, Returns & Payment Section In Retail Knowledge Panel

Apr 28, 2025 - 7:21 am

Apple Updates Applebot Docs: Explaining Applebot-Extended vs Applebot

Apr 28, 2025 - 7:11 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Console API Data Stuck On April 22

Apr 28, 2025 - 5:56 am
Previous Story: Google AdWords API Update Brings Offline Conversions Integration