That article doesn't discuss the details of the implementation, but it could very well be the Adsense js that is tagging the cookie with the referral data. Any ad network can implement that.
Perhaps I wasn't clear. Google is hiding referer data, particularly the query string, for a growing number of searchers. Today it's anyone logged into google, or about 60% of traffic to my blog. Tomorrow, they may well do it for anyone. Right now for the logged in users, and potentially in the future for anyone, the only ad network that can still see the search terms in the referer string is adsense, because Google search can pass them to adsense internally. No other ad network can see them. This is obviously incredibly valuable for adsense. And it should trigger an antitrust violation because they're using their monopoly / near monopoly in search to juice their offsite context and display ad networks.
No, you weren't particularly clear. Mostly because if Google is sharing data between search and adsense internally, it doesn't have anything to do with Adsense storing referrer data anymore.
Google uses search activity from the past several hours to help match
ads in adsense for content[1]. Hiding those from other ad networks is,
imo, one of the best reasons they should be sued for antitrust.
So: Google is a monopoly / near monopoly search engine in the US and Europe. Many ad networks use the query string located in the referer from outgoing search clicks to help target ads. AFC, a Google owned and operated ad network, uses this information as per blog post linked by me somewhere in this thread.
Google has recently started hiding search query strings by stripping them from the referrer for logged in users and has made noise that sounds like this will eventually happen for all users. This hurts ad networks because it removes some of the intent they use to help target ads, and crucially hurts the most when trying to target ads on low information pages. However, Google can certainly internally continue to give this information to adsense in order to target content. This is the sort of thing antitrust law is meant to prevent: using a monopoly in one area (search and sem) to juice your business elsewhere (display ad network).
I understand that you are complaining about https. I'm pointing out that the article you linked doesn't provide any insight into what data Google is sharing internally.
Google is known -- by their own blog! -- to use this data for ad targeting. Until they say they aren't, it's more than reasonable to assume they continue to use it for ad targeting. They are certainly aware of other ad networks using the search query string: employees have mentioned it in conference talks. If they were using no more information than any other ad network has access to, it would be trivial for them to publicly say so. Until then, I suggest writing the FTC.
