Around the end of January 2007 IE 7 will start showing a green address bar for sites that the browser detects as ‘safe’.
The browser determines a site is ‘safe’ if it uses an extended validation SSL certificate.
Only SSL (Secure Socket Layer) sites that use the extended validation (EV) SSL certificate will be displayed in green. The certificate authorities Verisign (including Thawte and GeoTrust), CyberTrust, Entrust, GoDaddy, QuoVadis, XRamp, SecureTrust and DigiCert have said they will sell the new certificates.
I have not seen any prices yet for these, but part of me feels like I am being extorted for more money. As it is certificates are not cheap. I would imagine the new and improved EV SSL certs will cost twice as much.
It is not like you have a choice either – who wants a big fat message that pops up when customers visit your shopping cart “This website may not be safe!”
It will be interesting to see if Firefox supports this new type of certificate. Either way, if you host, or support those who host a SSL website you might want to start looking into these new certificates.