If you are using Internet Explorer 8 and go to Google, the default experience will not be over SSL and thus the referrer data will pass in full to the webmaster.
Google has switched their search results page to virtually 100% SSL late last year, resulting in a 90%+ count of not provided for keyword data in analytics.
But today, if you use IE8 and go to Google, that experience will not be SSL enabled.
Here is a screen shot of me testing this:
Notice the http and not the https.
When you click through to see if it picks up the referrer, it does:
Now, Matt Cutts warned us of some changes to IE8 in the near future, so this may be it. I was expecting Google to not pass the source or any data during this phase, but maybe it didn't work out that way? I suspect this will only last for a short period of time.
However, some folks at WebmasterWorld are hoping this is a sign of of what Google promises to change with not provided and thus dropping SSL. I highly doubt that, highly doubt that.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
