Pravin Kothari

[Commentary] The 10th anniversary of Gmail reminds us of Google’s uncanny ability to symbiotically evolve with and shape the future of the Web.

When the service launched in 2004, it successfully disrupted the then-dominant players in the space, a feat that the company pulled off for search, and repeated with Android. The most recent example of Google’s adaption is its move to extend Gmail encryption. No, this isn’t deja vu. While Google made a similar announcement about email protection in 2010, it will now encrypt all inter-server traffic for Gmail to offer an additional step to enhance user privacy in the era of Web-powered communications. At the center of Google’s approach to protecting the next generation of the Internet is a revamp of email encryption, a technique that traces back to the 1990s.

Historically, HTTPS made it possible for e-commerce to flourish by securing the IT tunnels for payment transactions, authenticating websites and securing digital communications. Now, Google is adapting the protocol as part of its model for securing the future of the Internet by building trust in its technologies and by setting the stage for a more secure Internet. The fact is that the Web is evolving much faster than we can grasp, and not always in a good way. But, as Google’s latest move shows, encryption is becoming a much more pervasive and trusted technology in our connected world. Google has brought end-to-end encryption to email tunnels. Now it’s time to extend that protection to data across the IT stack that businesses and consumers touch. As Edward Snowden pointed out in his SXSW panel, encryption is most powerful when applied from end to end.

[Kothari is Founder and CEO, CipherCloud]