Google is adjusting its indexing system to crawl HTTPS pages in favor of their HTTP equivalents, the Internet giant announced on Thursday.
The move is meant to further promote the use of the HTTPS protocol, which should result in increased user security, the company notes in a blog post. Google also explained that it will start crawling HTTPS equivalents of HTTP web pages, even when the former are not linked to from any page.
The announcement follows last year’s adjustment in Google’s indexing system, which gave HTTPS pages a bump in rankings. By promoting HTTPS pages, the company shows its commitment towards making the web browsing a more private experience, and “not subject to eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, or data modification.”
The company has already implemented the security protocol in many of its services, including Gmail, Google, and YouTube, and the new change is expected to determine more website owners to follow suite. However, the change won’t affect domains that have only HTTP pages, it appears.
