WebProNews

New software to be offered by the search engine company would route web requests through its computers to speed up retrieval.

Though the service will speed up normal web browsing, requests for secure pages will not route through the service.

Users will be able to turn the service on or off once they have it installed, or to have it not handle requests for specific sites.

Privacy advocates fear a database of web activity would be gleefully targeted by law enforcement subpoenas, or even competing parties in a civil action.

Google would likely use data aggregated by the service to help with its advertising models, should they choose to do so. At this time, the company has no plans to use the data immediately, according to a Google spokesperson.

"There is a bit of a privacy tradeoff," said Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products. "We're making the Web faster, but in exchange we do need to know what you're doing."

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.