lammert - 4:39 am on May 23, 2010 (gmt 0)

I was not trying to upset anyone, especially not e-com store holders. Google SERPs served via SSL will function just as they did before and send just as much traffic to the listed sites.

The difference is that access to referrer data will be filtered by the visitor's browser, unless the landing page Google is sending the visitor to is also SSL encrypted. Many e-com sites already have SSL certificates in place and for many other sites the financial impact of an investment in one is not a big issue, compared to their income stream. And there is also a large group of webmasters which don't care about search engine referral keywords at all.

Only those living from throw-away domains, parked domains and other types of sites where initial setup costs are substantial compared with the prospected income per domain name may see a drastic change in their ROI if access to the SE keywords is essential for their business operation.