Google Making Search More Secure

Today, Google announced that marketers will no longer be able to analyze Google clicked natural search terms for any user who is logged into one of their many solutions; mail, photos, blogs, documents, etc. The search term of these authenticated user clicks will be encrypted. To enable the encryption, Google will redirect users to a secure (HTTPS) version of their site.

We applaud Google for wanting to make the user experience safer.

The IBM Enterprise Marketing Management team, comprised of the Coremetrics and Unica teams, is taking a proactive approach and is working with Google to clarify the implications of such a change. In the meantime, the current web analytics solutions from IBM will continue to work without any modification or update required. That said, you will likely see a substantial increase in no search results or “None.” Unfortunately, no work around has been provided by Google; therefore, this is a matter that will impact all vendors that leverage this traditionally vital information. Any Google paid search or display ad clicks tagged with Coremetrics or Unica target URL parameters will not be impacted.

Lee Isensee
Product Marketing Manager
IBM Enterprise Marketing Management