https://www.google.com?q=referer and then click to www.whatismyreferer.com- no referer as expected.
http://www.google.com?q=referer and then click to www.whatismyreferer.com - a valid referer as expected.
Nothing to see here folks.
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?
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.
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
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.