Role of Search Engines in Our Society

Hello friends, I hope you all are performing well in your life. In today’s tutorial, we will have a look at detailed The Role of Search Engines in Our Society. this digital world, where the most advanced technologies are shaping our lives every day, search engines have become increasingly important for our everyday life. Search engines like Google are the first place where people go to find anything and everything they need. From entertainment and fun to work, working, education, medicine, and more, search engines are our online universities and libraries of knowledge where people can get any information they need within mere seconds.  Then, there's also the fact that we're exposed to information anywhere we look or go. T-shirt slogans, traffic signs, text messages, websites, newspapers, advertisements, this modern industrialized society is based on data.  If we take into consideration that data is the new currency in this new virtual reality of ours, a person has a hard time keeping up with all this information. Well, one of the best ways to keep up is by understanding the importance of search engines.

Information Management

With such vast amounts of information we encounter every day, most people find it virtually impossible to remember all the details they need to know. Email addresses, phone numbers, figures, dates, names, the list goes on and on.  They need tools to store all that information and retrieve it on demand. The internet is swarming with useful tools like Microsoft Outlook that people use to manage their email, and so on.  Companies have project managers that use various innovative and advanced information management tools to help employees locate and obtain pertinent information. People can count on these tools to get what they want.  Well, the same can be said for search engines. Internet users, both mobile and online, use these engines to find anything online – from a piece of information or service to a new job, product, even a date.

The Ever-increasing Number Of Searches 

Google did a recent survey, and according to this research, there are more than one trillion searches performed per year. If we convert this number to a search per day, it will be something like three billion searches a day.  The whole world depends on search engines. It's not only internet users that use search engines to find useful information. Businesses use them too.  They use search engine optimization to promote what they do and attract wider audiences. SEO helps organizations make the most of their marketing efforts and so much more.  These useful engines are so necessary that there are different types of search engines, depending on the kind of information you're looking for. The best example is Octopart.com, a search engine that people use to find electronic parts. Instead of looking for information on Google, people can use this specific search engine to search across hundreds of distributors and thousands of manufacturers.  It offers you the ability to browse a wide range of electronic parts and components by category. If you're looking for integrated circuits or passive components or anything electromechanical, Octopart will provide it within mere seconds.  We can safely say that search engines make our lives much easier, more educated, and informed. They help us learn and educate ourselves by offering an abundant source of information.  If we take the fact that most people are either mobile or online or both today, they have such power of knowledge right at their fingertips. Search engines have become readily and widely accepted in this contemporary, digital culture of ours.

Find Any Information you Need In Seconds

When we take a better look at it, search engines aren't just about looking for information on demand. They also act as a filter. The internet is loaded with a wealth of available information. Sifting through it would take a tremendous amount of time and effort.  Instead of that, a search engine helps any individual find any information they need in mere seconds by filtering through all that wealth of available information and only presenting the data that is of value to them.  More importantly, search engines like Google only crawl and search for information on the highest quality, trusted websites. The search results you get on Google are reliable and trustworthy but, more importantly, up-to-date, accurate, and relevant.  This is crucial for all who use search engines, especially businesses in different industries.  The most advanced search engines like Google maintain databases of web pages regularly to make sure the information they deliver is relevant and according to the users' interest.  Google uses smart and complex algorithms to assess web pages and websites to rank them for relevant search keywords and phrases. We can safely conclude that the world, as we know it today, depends on search engines to keep turning.  Now you may have understood The Role of Search Engines in Our Society. That how important it is for use and how it is making our life easier.

Introduction To TLS, SSL, and HTTPS

Hello friends, I hope you all are doing great in your home. In today’s tutorial, we are going to look at a detailed Introduction to TLS, SSL, and HTTPS. Let’s break down what HTTPS, SSL, and TLS really mean, how they work, and why encryption is so important. Have you ever wondered why some web addresses are different from others?  Let’s discuss it with detail.

What is TLS, SSL and HTTPS

Online attacks are increasing day by day and easy to execute. Because of this, businesses around the world are heavily scrutinizing online transactions involving confidential data to ensure that customers are as secure as possible. Websites without proper security are leaving valuable digital assets vulnerable. Hackers can target customers through email phishing campaigns or intercept private information passed along through a site. All it takes is a single breach to devastate a business. If your website is not safe, secure, and reliable, users will likely avoid it.  In a nutshell, the internet can be a rather dangerous place. Over the past few years, Google has taken steps to shed light on this issue and keep everyone on the websafe. Google’s large browser market share means they have a significant influence on how the Internet operates and where it’s going in the future. Visual security indicators are more apparent now than ever to equip consumers with information to decide what companies they trust with their business. 

HTTPS 

(An example of a secure website from ssl.com) The very first part of every web address indicates whether the site uses Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). In both instances, data is sent between your browser and the website you are on but HTTP websites are generally not considered encrypted or secure. Trust is the foundation of the Internet economy, and to ensure it, you need end-to-end security. HTTPS ensures that ongoing online communication between server and browser is encrypted and secure. Google also began to use HTTPS as a lightweight ranking signal in the search algorithm. Its algorithm prioritizes websites that used encryption, which, together with a whole variety of metrics, helps to outrank those without. 

SSL vs TLS 

Here is when Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or TLS (Transport Layer Security) come into play. To establish an HTTPS connection, you will have to first purchase an SSL or TLS certificate from a trusted provider. Once the certificate is set up, data will be transmitted by using HTTPS which makes your website less vulnerable to cyber attacks.  SSL ensures secure communication almost the same way TLS does, and the differences between the two protocols are small and rather technical. Despite all the similarities they do differ from each other in some respects. Both protocols provide authentication and encryption when transferring data and work by tying a cryptographic digital key to a website’s identifying information. The Internet Engineering Task Force simply created TSL as the successor of SSL; therefore, nowadays, it is considered the encryption standard, although the term SSL is still widely used.  TLS, or the older SSL, both are technologies for encrypting the link between a web server and a web browser. When a browser accesses a server over HTTPS, a sequence called a “handshake” occurs, which establishes a cypher suite (a set of algorithms) for each communication. For the authentication, they utilize a pair of keys (a public key and private key, created together as a pair) that manage the connections. Public keys are encryption tools that use one-way encryption, while the original sender can “sign” data with a private key to secure it.  When you add a certificate to a website, you are encrypting sensitive information, which can include transaction and bank information, credit card information, usernames, passwords, contact information, or anything else being passed between a user and your site. With it, you safeguard your business and your customers’ information by making sure that any data transferred between parties remains impossible to read by hackers.  There are a few visual indicators that indicate a secure website. In addition to displaying your web address as HTTPS, all browsers will show the following trusted visuals cues: 
  • Padlock / green browser bar 
  • Company name 
  • Trusted site seal 
Many browsers trigger security warnings when a user attempts to enter a site with an unsecured connection. Google Chrome, for example, flags all non-encrypted websites as unsafe and even displays a Non Secure warning to deter customers from visiting them. The goal is to have your website served to as many people as possible and to give customers a great experience as intended. 

TYPES OF CERTIFICATES 

Every website should have an SSL or TLS certificate, but there are a variety of certification options that differ in type, price, and level of validation. Any certificate will prevent browser warnings from driving traffic away from their sites, however, a website that deals with particularly sensitive information, such as an e-commerce site, requires a certificate that indicates a security standard with visual SSL indicators. When choosing the best SSL / TLS certificate, two aspects should be considered; validation level and functionality. 

Validation Level 

  • Domain Validated (DV): requires proof of control over the domain. DV is a good, fairly easy option for small sites that don’t collect personal data. 
  • Organization Validated (OV): requires light business authentication, which results in verified business information being listed in the certificate details. It is a good option for Enterprise environments and intranets. 
  • Extended Validation (EV): because a trusted certificate authority has fully vetted your organization, browsers will give your website special treatment, displaying your organization's name in the address bar. 

Functional 

  • Single-Domain (SD): can be installed on a single domain and is available at all three validation levels. 
  • Multi-Domain (MD): can encrypt up to 250 domains with a single certificate. 
  • Wildcard (WC): can secure a single domain and all accompanying first-level sub-domains, but is only available in DV and OV. 
  • Multi-Domain Wildcards (MDWC): can encrypt up to 250 domains, plus any accompanying sub-domains, but is only available in DV or OV. 
There are free and cost-effective SSL solutions which satisfy the bare minimum requirements, but if you want your company to rise above the basic industry standards, as well as offer more security for your website and gain confidence in your brand, you should invest in the right certificate for your needs. 101domain offers a buyer’s guide that goes over everything you need to know to decide on your ideal certificate type. Since security certification is a dynamic and constantly evolving aspect of web security, it is essential to do your homework before you purchase just any SSL / TLS certificate.  This is all for today and if you have any question regarding this post, you can comment down below and ask me. I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Syed Zain Nasir

I am Syed Zain Nasir, the founder of <a href=https://www.TheEngineeringProjects.com/>The Engineering Projects</a> (TEP). I am a programmer since 2009 before that I just search things, make small projects and now I am sharing my knowledge through this platform.I also work as a freelancer and did many projects related to programming and electrical circuitry. <a href=https://plus.google.com/+SyedZainNasir/>My Google Profile+</a>

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Syed Zain Nasir