Google has decided to make default its secure version of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol that are used by Web browsers whenever one uses their services. Here’s a snippet from the Big G.
“Using HTTPS helps protect data from being snooped by third parties, such as in public Wi-Fi hotspots. We initially left the choice of using it up to you because there’s a downside: HTTPS can make your mail slower since encrypted data doesn’t travel across the Web as quickly as unencrypted data. Over the last few months, we’ve been researching the security/latency tradeoff and decided that turning HTTPS on for everyone was the right thing to do.”
Bear in mind that folks who use offline Gmail via HTTP will find that switching to HTTPS will most probably cause a handful of problems, although there is a secure offline Gmail fix available to get things up and running again. Well, we’d still stick to email despite all of its problems compared to the Pony Express.