SSL is used to secure information travelling between points on the Internet. That's done with encryption, which ensures that if someone intercepts your data while it's in transit --like a username or password-- it will just be gibberish.

While SSL has been around for awhile, it's only recently that its adoption has been stepped up, with the likes of , , and, of course, Google incorporating the protocol into its offerings.

Google added SSL to Gmail in January 2010. It now has expanded its SSL coverage to searches conducted by logged-in members or for those who go directly to a (you can tell it's secure by the "S" after the http and/or the lock showing in the page's URL).

Performing secure searches will prevent Internet snoops from snatching your search queries and search results when they're returned to you. Why should you care if your search results are intercepted by a third party? Those results can be used to create a profile of you. That profile can then be used to market products to you or even to design flim-flam schemes to con sensitive information from you.