On my main sites I run Statcounter as well as my own referral tracking. My tracking only writes a database record if the referral string is available. So if someone reaches the site and does not send a referral string, my tracker does not record the visit. Today, by my tracker, the traffic looks way off. I checked with Statcounter and what it looks like is suddenly most of my traffic is not sending referral strings. Why is that? It isn't traffic from Live.com; it is the same old MSN and Yahoo traffic that visits the site. Normally 90% of them give a referral. Today only 10% are giving one. What gives?