Encrypted Google Web Search Now Available

Google has extended SSL coverage to its biggest service yet, the Web Search. The new encrypted search offers significant privacy protection at virtually no cost.

The HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) is a protocol that makes use of SSL/TLS to encrypt HTTP communications. Even though HTTPS dates back to the '90s, until a few years back only a select number of websites, like online banking systems, enabled this security mechanism for entire browsing sessions.

It has always been a known fact that network administrators can snoop traffic passing through the infrastructure they control, yet people never really cared on a wide scale that their private communications could be intercepted and viewed without authorization. A more widespread need for HTTP encryption wasn't felt until the rapid proliferation of unsecured private wireless networks and hotspots, which made Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks from ill-intent parties a lot more likely.

Session-wide HTTPS has been available for Gmail for years, however, the majority of users remained unaware of the option or of how to enable it. Finally, after repeated pleads from security researchers, IT experts or privacy advocates and after performing extensive testing, Google enabled it by default for all users of its email service.

Enabling encryption for Web Search might not seem as important as protecting private emails, but the move carries important privacy benefits, especially for users in countries where freedom of information and speech carry little meaning. "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 company explains in a post on its official blog.

But protected search terms and search results are not the only benefit of the new SSL encryption. The feature also strips the referrer URL from the browser's header when visiting a URL shown in the search results. Therefore, the website in question won't see that you reached it after performing a Google Web search.

According to The Register, Google plans to enable HTTPS for Web Search by default in the future as it did for Gmail, but only after more testing is performed to make sure the change won't negatively impact large groups of users. It is also worth noting that, at the moment, SSL encryption is not yet available for all services that normally integrate with Web Search, such as Image Search or Google Maps.

Fedora 13 Released

Dear Fedora fans, we are pleased to announce that the major update of the Fedora Linux operating system is now here, available for download on mirrors worldwide (see below for download link). Dubbed Goddard, the brand-new Fedora 13 operating system is a solid release with major improvements and enhancements.

We are now looking forward for the next release, Fedora 14, codename "Laughlin," which will be released sometime in October-November 2010. Fedora 14 will include bleeding-edge packages, such as the newly released Linux kernel 2.6.34, X.Org Server 1.9, GNOME 3.0, GCC 4.5, and many more!

Highlights of Fedora 13:

· Linux Kernel 2.6.32;
· KDE SC 4.4;
· Support for webcams;
· Mozilla Firefox 3.6 web browser;
· Enhanced Init System;
· Topology Awareness;
· Improved Anaconda Installer;
· Improved software management;
· 3D Support for Nvidia Systems;
· Automatic installation of printer drivers;
· Language packs are automatically installed;
· Revamped user management interface;
· Improved NetworkManager;
· Color management;
· SystemTap static probes;
· Zarafa Groupware;
· NetBeans 6.8;
· Python 3 support;
· Btrfs snapshots integration.

Windows 7 to Get 64-bit (x64) Firefox

64-bit (x64) architectures are the future, and already well on their way to becoming mainstream and burying 32-bit (x64). Microsoft was one of the first companies to recognize the trend and adapt products such as Windows XP, and then Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Office 2010 to the general trend in the evolution of processors. In fact, the software giant is already producing x64 exclusive software with Windows Server 2008 R2 and beyond, for example. Users currently running the 64-bit flavor of Windows 7 will soon be able to install a 64-bit version of Firefox offered officially by Mozilla.

In a platform meeting on May 25th, 2010, Mozilla indicated that it had been gearing up to produce the first x64 builds of Firefox tailored to Windows 7 by the end of this week. Mozilla’s Armen Zambrano Gasparian revealed that, “Once the builds start working (I almost have them) they will show up in” the Latest Trunk download section. Early adopters will, of course, be able to download x64 Firefox releases and run them on 64-bit Windows 7.

Of course, users of Windows 7 already have a 64-bit browser at their disposal. The latest iteration of the Windows client comes with Internet Explorer 8 (64-bit) out of the box. However, as customers undoubtedly are aware, the default browser for Windows 7 is the 32-bit version of IE8, despite the fact that the operating system features the x64 flavor.

The reason for this is rather simple. 64-bit browsers don’t really enjoy support across the board for the time being. One illustrative example in this regard is that Adobe isn’t providing a x64 version of Flash to integrate with x64 Internet Explorer 8. The same is valid for Firefox. Users of x64 Firefox won’t have a release of the Adobe Flash plugin to integrate with their browser, severely impacting the user experience on websites such as YouTube, for example.

Obviously, a 64-bit (x64) version of Mozilla’s open source browser will only be delivered in the future. Firefox 4.0 is currently cooking, with the promise of a Beta development milestone available as early as the coming month. Still, ahead of the Firefox 4.0 Beta planned for June 2010, Mozilla is looking to offer early adopters at least one more Developer Preview to test-drive.