signor_john - 3:27 pm on Feb 7, 2009 (gmt 0)

Referrer tracking seems to have been disrupted - as expected - for the "small percentage".

No biggie. It's a test. Tests don't last forever, and the people who do the test generally look at the results.

Also, I think it's pretty naive to think that Google would make such a big change to its way of delivering search results just for the sake of messing up people's referrer strings. As Tedster suggests, the referrer problem is a side effect, not a goal. And the scenario that Brett described (making it possible for searchers to preview sites from the SERP) is too compelling to ignore if it can be done. If Google doesn't do it, somebody else will, and I can't see Google being willing to let a competitor or an upstart be the game-changer.