Well, the topic of default encryption is related to a mass global surveillance network supported by data collection capabilities built into the internet backbone - and HN is concerned about what these technical capabilities could mean for a runaway government or in the hands of adversarial entities/governments/groups. It's an incredibly important topic, so I'm glad there's some chat about it.

> To me a more interesting question is how will this impact keyword data that's pasted through the referring URL?

Doesn't Google have a redirect mechanism that allows referrer information to pass through when a 'blue link' is clicked?