Encrypted Google?

Thanks to one of my Bits students for sending this screenshot along to me. Google is experimenting with an encrypted version of its search engine, so if I were searching, say, for the location of tomorrow's anti-government rally, the government couldn't see that that is what I am searching for, even if it were scanning all my Internet communications. Sounds like a good idea. Aimed to grab some of the positive press that Facebook has been enjoying for its role in helping dissidents organize? That would be too cynical an interpretation, I'm quite sure …