Google is using RC4, but isn't RC4 considered unsafe? Why is Google using RC4 for their HTTPS/SSL?

$ openssl s_client -connect www.google.com:443 | grep "Cipher is"
New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is RC4-SHA


Isn't RC4 unsafe to use?
Academically speaking, RC4 is terrible; it has easy distinguishers ("easy" means "can really be demonstrated in lab conditions"). It is also hard to use properly. However, SSL/TLS uses RC4 correctly, and in practice the shortcomings of RC4 have no real importance.

The power-that-be at Google decided to switch to RC4 by default because of the recent "BEAST" attack, which demonstrates (again, in lab conditions) a compromise of a Paypal cookie. There is no such dramatic demonstration for an attack on RC4 as used in SSL, so it was estimated that using AES-CBC with SSL/TLS 1.0 was "more risky" than using RC4.

The academically "right thing" to do would be to use AES-CBC with TLS 1.1 (or any ulterior version), which has no problem with BEAST and none of the RC4-related weaknesses either. However, Google makes money in the real world, and, as such, they cannot enforce a configuration which would prevent a third of their user base from connecting.