ironically if you follow this path in a desktop browser it bounces you through an HTTP url so the referrer is set.

Contrary to the article it looks like Google is doing something different to iOS 6 users, not Apple. (note I have no idea if this is something specific to iOS users, it could be happening on Android as well - I'm not trying to attribute this to malice)

EDIT: Just tried this on my nexus 7 and it also skips the http referer page, so I get the "no referer" message. it seems like something they do for mobile browsers?

I'm guessing that the deliberate skip the HTTP intermediate page to reduce latency on mobile clients. If you are on something like GPRS or Edge, that extra hop could add a lot of latency.

It's a trade-off between ensuring a good user experience (fast page loads) and a good website owner experience (full referer data).

FWIW, I find the HTTP intermediate step a tad annoying (it makes copy-and-pasting a result from Google a bit more awkward), but I can see why it's there.

I think you missed the point of the above demonstration a bit. It was meant to demonstration that iOS6 is acting completely normal. No referer is sent for https, and that is expected behavior. Google even went so far as to send out emails, blog posts to the analytics and the webmaster tools blogs, and G+ posts about it a while back so GA users would not be surprised as there referrer data decreased. For those missing refers we now have to use the Webmaster Tools and try to piece the data together a bit.

I think you missed my point.

If I go to the https link above via a desktop browser, and see the results page (also https) with "What's my referrer" on it and click the link Google doesn't take me directly to the site, the link for "What's my referrer" is (not https)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&#...

Which then redirects me to whatismyreferer.com so that whatismyreferer gets a google referer. Apparently for whatever reason if you do that on iOS6 the search results takes you directly to whatismyreferer.com without the redirect.

agree, this is something new. here's how google search on desktop acted the last time i checked:

from http://google.com --> redirects to a url that sends "google.com..." referrer with search terms

from https://google.com --> redirects to a url that sends "google.com..." referrer with search term stripped

from https://encrypted.google.com --> sends blank referrer

You need to test it with a search. It's not that you don't get referrer data. It's that you don't get search referrer data. Do a search on Google, see if you get the terms you searched for embedded in the referrer. That's what we tested; that's what was removed.

Actually, scratch that. You shouldn't be getting a referrer at all. We'll check further, but you should check with Google searches.