Google Referrals HTTPS

July 9th, 2015
https, tech, traffic
I've been reading in the news about Google moving more and more traffic to HTTPS. I was looking at my server logs, though, and I still see a lot of HTTP traffic:

Testing now, if I fetch http://www.google.com with curl I don't see a redirect to https but I do see one in Chrome in incognito mode. I wonder what's keeping Google from rolling out the redirect to other browsers?

(I do work for Google, but I don't have any inside information here.)

Update 2015-07-09: A major confounding factor here is that my site is on HTTP, I selected only traffic with referrers, and browsers do various things to hide referrers when going from HTTPS to HTTP. See discussion with Kleber in the comments.

Referenced in: More Mailbag

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

American effective altruists should probably donate to political candidates

My recommendation for donors who are American citizens or permanent residents is that they donate directly to high-value political candidates.

via Thing of Things December 28, 2025

Opinionated takes on parenting

This post is a collection of parenting takes that sometimes go through my head, based on my experience raising our two boys (5 and 2 years old). All of this is based on my experience and might not apply to others (see the law of equal and opposite advice)…

via Victoria Krakovna December 16, 2025

How to Make a Christmas Wreath

Yesterday, I made a Christmas wreath. Here's how to make one. First, find an evergreen tree near your house. Clip off a few branches from the tree. Try to have as many leaves or needles on the branches as possible. Next, bring them home. What I usu…

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts December 6, 2025

more     (via openring)