December 3, 2019
Back in 2018, Google’s Chrome browser version 68 was released. Along with the regular spate of bug fixes and UI changes, they implemented one big new feature: any website that was not using https would show as Not Secure in the browser bar. With approximately 56% of the market share for web browsers, any change that Google makes will be felt by the majority of web users. The effect was exactly what Google wanted: Any site that was still using http was immediately thought to be a security risk, and website owners were inundated with calls from visitors wondering if their favorite websites had been hacked.