From: Fisher Mark <FisherM@exch1.indy.tce.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 02:27:32 +0800
To: "'cypherpunks'" <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>
Subject: RE: Search engines and https
Message-ID: <2328C77FF9F2D011AE970000F84104A749344B@indyexch_fddi.indy.tce.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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I suspect this is just a hangover from the earlier days of the Web
(1993-1994) when it seemed to me that a lot of Web content was
repurposed from other sources (gopher, FTP, Telnet -- the old "page
after page of links").  I suspect that http://-only indexing occurred so
that the early search engines could manage the amount and types of data
indexed.

The other aspects are that:
* https:// can be significantly slower to server off of a smaller server
(http:// giving OK performance, but https:// being a dog), which may
prevent some from serving more content via https://; and
* Many of us find being your own Certificate Authority makes for greater
security, as you never have to let your private keys out the door, but
only recently have the tools for creating and maintaining Certificate
Authorities and server certificates become really commercialized (i.e.
GUI front ends, available from Netscape and Microsoft, etc.)

These aspects, I think, have combined to reduce the number of pages
served by https://, such that the search engine vendors probably haven't
been bugged very much to index https:// pages.  I expect this to change.
> ==========================================================
> Mark Leighton Fisher          Thomson Consumer Electronics
> fisherm@indy.tce.com          Indianapolis, IN
> "Their walls are built of cannon balls, their motto is
> 'Don't Tread on Me'"
>