By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Gmail has introduced the ability for its users to access their email through a secure “https” connection.

Previously, if you wanted to access Gmail through a https connection, you had to use a Greasemonkey script or Gina Trapani’s Better Gmail Firefox extension.   But now Gmail has integrated it right into their interface.

You may be wondering though, if a secure connection is so important, why Gmail gives you the chance to opt out of it.   The Gmail blog explains :

We use https to protect your password every time you log into Gmail, but we don’t use https once you’re in your mail unless you ask for it (by visiting https://mail.google.com rather than http://mail.google.com). Why not? Because the downside is that https can make your mail slower. Your computer has to do extra work to decrypt all that data, and encrypted data doesn’t travel across the internet as efficiently as unencrypted data. That’s why we leave the choice up to you.

I personally use a secure connection all the time so I am glad that Gmail is now offering this feature officially.     Https is another tick in the plus column for why Gmail is so much better than other email services!

Being Gmail, it is possible that they are rolling this out slowly, so if you don’t see it in your settings, wait a few days.   I’m sure it will make an appearance eventually.