Google Thwarting Blackhat SEO?

Google’s Beta version of https://www.google.com, or its secure search site, is up and running. When visitors opt for this version of Google’s search engine, their searches are encrypted. Your search goes through an SSL (secure sockets layer) connection. By creating a secure connection with Google, users are able to keep their searches private (or at least private between Google and searchers). If you opt to click on a link, that too is kept private. The site that you link to doesn’t receive information about your IP address or other usual referral information. It is thought that the encrypted site will put a damper on SEO poisoning.

If you search the “trending now” topics, which include current events, there are always a handful of malicious sites thrown into the results. Blackhat SEOs use trending topics and keywords to inflate their search results, hoping to draw more visitors to their sites. Here, it is possible for Trojans and other forms of malware to attack your computer. This has been a problem that is particularly prevalent with searches for major world events, like the attack on the “Free Gaza Flotilla” or the Moscow suicide bombings in March.

After Beta testing, Google may opt to provide secure connections with its standard search engine.It is hoped that Google’s encrypted search option will thwart blackhat SEOs because they are not privy to the trending topics and thus cannot use them to push their malicious sites to prime search rankings.
A PC World blogger writes, “I managed to scare up a search term associated with current SEO poisoning attacks. I performed the search simultaneously in two browsers, one using standard Google and the other using Google SSL. Clicking the link in Google SSL redirected to CNN.com, as others noted. Clicking the link in standard Google got me a warning that Norton Internet Security 2010 had just averted an attack.”
On the flip side, it is feared that this same encryption could hinder legitimate SEO efforts for the very same reason. Beta testing should provide some further information on this speculation.