New Google "ei" URL paramater

This morning I noticed that Google is now appending a new "ei" parameter to it's URL redirects. At least, I HOPE it's Google. For example:

https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=cr&ei=84jdh693GJ7dh4H99JYgd7

Naturally my paranoia meter immediately went into the red ("OMG browser hijacked") but I run a tight security ship so it's very unlikely. The "gws_rd=cr" has been there for a while and I know that's legit (researched it months ago) but the "ei" is new.

Anyone else seeing this or should I actually BE worried?

Thanks!

 

If you're that paranoid about it why not use startpage instead? Google results which are unlikely to be targeted by malware due to popularity.

 

What I am seeing today is that Google is with https
https://www.google.com/

I never noticed it... is it an old news?
I always thought it was http

 

BTW, you will probably only see this if you visit http://www.google.com from outside the US. Google redirects you to the relevant local site and appends "gws_rd=cr" to the redirected URL. I'm used to seeing that part but the "ei" is new so it had me scratching my head for a bit. Pretty sure it's legitimately added by Google though (and not some malware that hijacked my browser etc.).

 

The parameter itself isn't new but I've never seen it appended to a country redirect before. It only caught my eye because my browser homepage is set to http://www.google.com but I'm in Canada at the moment. Seeing a random 22 character code tacked onto the end my home page URL that wasn't there before looked a bit suspicious.

I have however been able to verify with other colleagues in Canada that they're seeing the same thing today so whatever the reason, it's not malicious.

 

Thanks for your reply