I guess if it really comes down to it Google can encrypt the query in the URL. If Microsoft circumvents this (like by intercepting the JavaScript that encrypts

I guess if it really comes down to it Google can encrypt the query in the URL. If Microsoft circumvents this (like by intercepting the JavaScript that encrypts it, or pulling the query out of the HTML input element), then it will demonstrate that they're really intentionally copying Google's results and this "clickstream" business was just a convenient cover.