Most larger companies have an "SSL Accelerator" which is usually part of a router/switch/load-balancer. This device does SSL in hardware, so it can do the offl

Most larger companies have an "SSL Accelerator" which is usually part of a router/switch/load-balancer. This device does SSL in hardware, so it can do the offloading much faster and let the web servers and app servers worry about serving-up the app and doing that work. Most SSL Accelerators can do millions of connections without working too hard, so it's possible at large scale for larger websites without really worrying about CPU on the server-side. I'll bet that they just don't worry about SSL except for when it's absolutely necessary (personal info - login, purchase, ...).