How to get the referer search query from google?

Question

As recently as two days ago, the following code worked to get the search query from google:

$refer = parse_url($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']);
$host = parse_url($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], PHP_URL_HOST);
$query = parse_url($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'], PHP_URL_QUERY);

if(strstr($host,'www.google.com'))
{
    //do google stuff
    $qstart = strpos($query, 'q=') +2;
    $qend = strpos($query, '&', $qstart);
    $qlength = $qend - $qstart;
    $querystring = substr($query, $qstart, $qlength);
    $querystring = str_replace('q=','',$querystring);
    $keywords = explode('%20',$querystring);
    $keywords = implode(' ', $keywords);
    return $keywords;                      
    }

However, now it does not. I tested it by using echo($query) and it appears that the way google processes referrer query requests has changed. Previously $query included

"q=term1%20term2%20term3%20...

Now, however, I am getting the following output when $query is echo'ed:

sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCsQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2F&ei=vDA-UNnxHuOjyAHlloGYCA&usg=AFQjCNEvzNXHULR0OvoPMPSWxIlB9-fmpg&sig2=iPinsBaCFuhCLGFf0JHAsQ

Is there a way to get around this?

Answer 1

Sorry to say, but it's global Google politics change.

See web link

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ru/2012/03/upcoming-changes-in-googles-http.html

This means if user sign in Google account. You can try it yourself: if your Google search url starts with https:// this means Google will hide some scratch parameters for the sake of privacy.

Answer 2

I too ran into the same issue this week. I'm not sure if this is still relevant to you, but what I found was that Google initiated SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) search for users who were signed in about a year ago, and it looks like SSL search may now be applied to all Google search queries. When I tested this, I was not signed in to Google and was using Firefox and still got the encrypted referring query.

This article has some helpful background and some ideas for working without specific search term data: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2227114/5-Tips-for-Handling-Not-Provided-Data

Answer 3

    // take the referer
$thereferer = strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']);
// see if it comes from google
if (strpos($thereferer,"google")) {
    // delete all before q=
    $a = substr($thereferer, strpos($thereferer,"q="));     
    // delete q=
    $a = substr($a,2);
    // delete all FROM the next & onwards
    if (strpos($a,"&")) {
        $a = substr($a, 0,strpos($a,"&"));
    }   
    // we have the results.
    $mygooglekeyword = urldecode($a);
}