The day we’ve all been expecting is almost here. Google Chrome, the world’s most popular web browser, will now default to HTTPS no matter how you type your web URL in the Chrome Omnibox.
If someone types a URL into the omnibox (what Google calls the address bar), Google will now automatically try to forward it to the HTTPS version of your website. If you don’t have an SSL set up, the user will then be presented with a security warning that they shouldn’t visit your website.
This means that, if you haven’t already, your website MUST have an SSL or you will lose valuable web traffic and potential customers.
Why is Google doing this?
Because they’re Google, and they can.
The PR reason is that their goal is to make the web more secure, and having an SSL makes a website more secure (but it’s not bulletproof by any means). Having an SSL is the most basic thing someone can do to ensure there is some form of security on their website. If a website doesn’t have one, it’s a website you should avoid.
But there are lots of reasons why a website doesn’t have an SSL. For example, if there was no e-commerce function or the website was very old and built before SSLs were required. Unfortunately, no excuse will be good enough now – Google Chrome does not care. You MUST have an SSL installed on your website in 2021.
We can, of course, provide you with SSLs for all your needs and they’re not that expensive at all at only €29.99/year ex vat.
So, if you’re hosted with Blacknight and need to have an SSL setup, please buy one here or 
and we’ll get it set up for you as soon as possible. Don’t get left out in the security cold by Google. Google Chrome Version 90 doesn’t have an exact release date yet – but it will be coming out sometime in April (Chrome usually auto-updates, so you won’t even notice when it happens).
About the Author: Jonathan Thomas
