Just a quick note that was a tad too long to tweet – Google has added SSL to search. If you’re surfing the web on an open wi-fi network, like one in a coffee shop, do your searches from https://www.google.com/.  Note the “s” in “https”.

It’s in Beta, but whatever, it’s Google.

Ordinarily you’re sending your search requests out in the clear.  This way your request (the term you search on) is sent to google via a secure channel, and the results from google are returned on that same channel.