Google Rates your Password Strength

Most of us have awful password etiquette, using the same easy-to-remember password across multiple sites, and only really choosing secure passwords when there is a specific system in place preventing us from using a simpler one.  Financial institutions have gotten better at preventing fraud and password hacking, in part because consumers are also realizing that choosing a different and more complex password for online banking makes good sense.  When it comes to email, however, most of us are still stuck with passwords easy to remember and easy to guess.  Never mind that anyone can go on a bank account, request a reset password by entering an email address, then hacking into your email account and resetting your online banking password themselves to get access to your financial funds.  Email password security just hasn’t made it onto most people’s list of concerns.  Google’s new password security analyzer is a great way to try and change that.  If you try to set up a password for any account with Google (email or otherwise), you will see a live assessment of your password strength.  Choose a real word and your security rating goes down to "fair" or "poor."  Use numbers or a combination of CAPS and lowercase, and the strength goes up.  It’s a real time visualization of how secure your password is at the moment when you are creating it.  Some may say the genius of Google comes across in their steady stream of technical innovations from Google SketchUp to the Google Sitemap Generator.  But it’s the little things, like the Password Strength tool, that really symbolize Google’s focus on user-friendly innovation.