Google and HTTP
I’ve been writing about Google’s efforts to deprecate HTTP, the protocol of the web. This is a summary of all the reasons why I am opposed to them doing this.
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They don’t have standing. The web is an open platform, not a corporate platform. It is defined by its stability. Also, if Google succeeds, it will make a lot of the web’s history inaccessible. People put stuff on the web precisely so it would be preserved over time. That’s why it’s important that no one has the power to change what the web is.
Previously: The Rush to “Deprecate” HTTP.
Update (2018-03-09): Nick Heer:
As Mill points out in his article, there are great reasons to add an HTTPS certificate to a website that has no interactive elements beyond links. It makes sense to me to generally prefer HTTPS going forward, but I have concerns about two browser vendors working to effectively eliminate the non-HTTPS web; or, at least, to put barriers between it and users.
@Citizenlab catches ISPs invisibly redirecting download requests for popular programs, injecting them with government spyware. Unencrypted web traffic is now provably a critical, in-the-wild vulnerability. 20-30% of top internet sites affected.
Update (2018-03-12): Dave Winer:
What Google is planning on doing to the web is unnecessarily damaging to the work of millions of people they don’t know. If they could step back and look at their objectives, and let’s see if we can compromise, so they can get what they really want and the web can be what it always has been, an open space for experimentation, free thought, and the development of world-changing ideas. It’s where Google itself came from.
Update (2018-03-23): Dave Winer:
I had to explain to a non-technical friend the significance of Google breaking HTTP in their browser. I offered an analogy.
Update (2018-05-19): See also: Mark Hughes.
Update (2018-07-11): James Donohue (via Jason Snell):
A few weeks ago the BBC News website finished transitioning to HTTPS. The green padlock you now see next to the web address is probably the biggest publicly visible technical change to the site since it relocated from news.bbc.co.uk in 2011. Even so, a question we’re often asked is “why did it take so long?”
