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Important doesn't equal or imply smart nor being good at what you do.

They aren't. Google upgrades to HTTPS automatically, and the old method of overriding the DNS to an unsecured Google server stopped working years ago. Same with Bing, Yahoo, DDG, etc. No SSL, no search in today's world.

HTTPS will not protect the URL of the request, just the contents though.

This is wrong. The domain name is revealed through SNI but the path of the URL is sent as part of the encrypted HTTP request.

HTTPS protects URL parameters. That stuff doesn't go to the DNS request.