By default, searches on Yahoo.com are now done through a secure server. That means more protection for searchers but less data for search marketers about how they are receiving traffic. Most visits from Yahoo done via search will appear as if someone came to a site directly. As a result, Yahoo’s apparent popularity as a traffic driving source will appear to plunge.
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer did promise in the past that the Internet search giant would begin to close up any security holes that it discovers, and it is nice to see that happening before its self-imposed Q1 2014 deadline matures. In a nutshell, from today onward, any kind of search that you perform would be done from their home page, where it will also be routed through a secure server automatically without you knowing any better. All of this should be invisible to the end user as it is, and hopefully without any kind of detrimental performance along the way.