SSL on entire website

Have i missed something?

What is the big deal about SSL on entire website?

I know that Cutts briefly mentioned it briefly somewhere but i didnt think there was any proof it actually did anything at all.

can someone point me in the right direction to reading more about this ssl trend everyone seems to be jumping on plz?

Seems like it`s one of the hundreds ranking factors but hardly think that it has major imprtance to rank. It may be safer for users/visitors but regular visitor hardly knows anything about SSL.

Cheers

I haven't seen any case studies on this aspect yet, but I suspect it may be a contributing ranking factor particularly in terms of how Google trusts your website. Most spammers won't invest in SSL so it makes sense that this might be a metric Google is considering. Also SSL requires varying levels of verification depending on the type of SSL you're using therefore the more verification one might assume Google places more trust accordingly.