MSN Search to Index HTTPS Pages

MSN Search will now index publicly accessible (non password protected) https pages of secure websites like email and banking sites. This is a welcome step and could help turn up interesting searches of many important websites, which were non indexed before.

The MSN Search weblog announces HTTPS search – “the ability to expose non-secure areas of Web sites which were largely secure”.

“E-mail and banking Web sites are just a few examples where HTTPS is used. HTTPS is a protocol typically used by websites offering users a service, and keeps third parties from intercepting sensitive information, such as passwords and banking information. However, there is still a lot of public information available on these sites – most notably, the login pages themselves. It’s this public content that we are making available through MSN Search, so that users can better locate the services they need.”