Gmail defaults to secure mode

BEIJING, January 14 (Xinhuanet) -- In an effort to increase security for Gmail users, Google has made all accounts HTTP secure (HTTPS), by default.

In 2008 Google added the option to always use HTTP Secure (HTTPS) when accessing Gmail. However, this option was disabled by default. Google's reasoning for this was the fact that HTTPS makes e-mail access slower.

Google has decided that Internet connections for most of its users are fast and stable enough to turn this option on by default. Users of the mail service may still turn the option off by choosing “Don't always use https” from the Settings menu.

Google will still use HTTPS on the login page, but will then switch back to unsecured connection, which could make the service a tiny bit faster.