Search outfit Google is offering its punters a secure form of searching. The big idea is that the SSL enabled version of the search will prevent your boss or ISP from checking what you are doing.

Employers and ISPs watching peoples' search traffic will just see an encrypted page and be none the wiser. Unfortunately it will only cover the Google search, any connection made via Google to non-secured sites will be visible in the same way as before. 

So using it to see porn at work is not a good idea. However it will mean that your searches will not be seen which covers half of the problem of being watchied.

Google's official blog says that the beta software means you can have an end-to-end encrypted search solution between your computer and Google. This secured channel helps protect your search terms and your search results pages from being intercepted by a third party. This provides you with a more secure and private search experience.

Google Images and Maps aren't available on SSL at the moment.