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Don’t Want Your Searches Encrypted? Add ?nord=1 To Your URL Parameters

Barry Schwartz on November 1, 2013 at 3:53 pm

Not interested in having Google encrypt and secure your searches for some reason? Well, now there is a way to stop Google from forcing you to search using Google SSL search, as it made everyone use last month. All you need to do is add ?nord=1 to the Google URL parameter.

For example, searching Google for SSL would bring you to this secure URL. Trying to remove the https in front of it, will still bring you to the https version.

https://www.google.com/search?q=ssl

But if you add ?nord=1 and drop the https, the URL will stick on the non-SSL version.

http://www.google.com/?nord=1#nord=1&q=ssl

Of course, if you run your network, you can always change the cname details to remove SSL. Here is the technical documentation on how to remove SSL at the network level.

I learned this while attending a recent Webmaster/Search Helpdesk Hangout.

As you know, virtually all searches done on Google are now encrypted, whether users want that or not (most probably do). For more about the change, see our previous article: Post-PRISM, Google Confirms Quietly Moving To Make All Searches Secure, Except For Ad Clicks.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on SEM topics.