I imagine this will be an article full of fluff. Or, not very technical. Enough to make those who don't knwo anything about search satisfied and the rest of us say "Yawn".

The joke is that even if they published a definitive version of the algo, the kind of people who moan about Google still wouldn't be any better off, since they STILL wouldn't have any clue what to do with the information. Those who do know what to do with it already have a good idea of what the algo looks like, at least in broad terms, and so will gain little themselves.

Overall, it's a brilliant idea on Google behalf, IMO

i vowed to keep an open mind as i was reading the article, and succeeded until i saw this in the fourth paragraph:

high-level executives are taking part in a roadshow to shed light on how the company searches the net and ranks content

which leads me to believe this "roadshow" will consist of three things:

- PR
- platitudes
- the occasional powerpoint slide

this is just a move to make nice with technology reporters. to TallTroll's point:

Those who do know what to do with it already have a good idea of what the algo looks like, at least in broad terms, and so will gain little themselves.

well said.