It's possible that the name server has a set if IP addresses and randomly gives one out each time it gets a request.  This would mean that you only get one each time but it may be a different one each time.

I get 216.8.177.24 when I dig for popgrp.vbqn.com so I'm not sure what you were seeing.

It's certainly possible for domains to have more than one...

# dig google.com

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;google.com.                    IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
google.com.             300     IN      A       64.233.187.99
google.com.             300     IN      A       72.14.207.99
google.com.             300     IN      A       64.233.167.99

# dig MX hotmail.com

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;hotmail.com.                   IN      MX

;; ANSWER SECTION:
hotmail.com.            2867    IN      MX      5 mx3.hotmail.com.
hotmail.com.            2867    IN      MX      5 mx4.hotmail.com.
hotmail.com.            2867    IN      MX      5 mx1.hotmail.com.
hotmail.com.            2867    IN      MX      5 mx2.hotmail.com.

Google have SSL available but if you go to https://www.google.com you will be redirected back to http://www.google.com.

If you go to a results page on SSL, you are redirected back to http://www.google.com. Not even your results page... the Google homepage.  That's a bit rude.

As far as I remember, the URL is not encrypted in an SSL connection so there wouldn't be any advantage in using SSL for a search.  Someone who wanted to see what you saw would simply need to request the same URL themselves.

If you were thinking of sending your Google cookies encrypted, I think you would be better off not accepting them in the first place.

Is there some other advantage of using SSL for search that I haven't thought of ?