>>>Who do you mean by 'they' ? Sounds like it is browser or add-in specific - so, if so, which browser?
>>
>>I went to Choice Hotels site and, once you log in, you see that behavior. I have never seen that on all certificate fully secure sites I have.
>
>You didn't say which browser - but from the rest of the thread I see it was IE. Also see that your certificate provider issues EV certificates. If you go for one I'd be interested to know what the process entails and how much it costs.

http://www.godaddy.com/ssl/ssl-certificates.aspx?ci=8979#compare

>The whole issue also brings into question the basis on which they were issuing bog-standard certificates in the first place - they charge you to provide them and now (implicitly) admit that they don't do enough checking to allow the general user to trust them.......

In wireless networking WEP stands for "Wired Equivalent Privacy". It used to be considered plenty good enough although no-one in their right mind would trust it any longer.

Certs and trust infrastructure are evolving (and, hopefully improving) the same way.