Google Chrome is making some changes with how HTTPS sites will display in the browser, when those pages also have some non-HTTPS elements or content present (also referred to as serving mixed content).  Now, those pages will show as they do for HTTP / unsecure pages.

Here is a chart showing the new change.

The Google blog notes that this change will impact those sites that are serving HTTPS pages, but have non-HTTPS images on the page.  It will also affect sites that are pulling some kind of other element, such as a third-party script, onto the page that is not also HTTPS.

It is a pretty minor change, but it is likely due to the confusion surrounding the status image showing as a lock, making people think the page is essentially secure when it actually isn’t completely secure.  Google feels it is best not to have two secure status icons, and this reduces the shown states to three.  In the future, Google plans to reduce this to just two states – secure and non-secure.

We do know that Google plans to flag non-secure flights in the future, in the form of an X through the lock icon, but while it is testing in Google Chrome Canary, it hasn’t been made default in the regular version of Chrome.

It also raises the question whether these pages will still receive the HTTPS ranking boost if they are serving mixed content.