Interestingly I'm actually surprised that Google has not yet included the "collective voice" in their ranking algo. You can see StumbleUpon thumbs up and favorites bookmarked but it doesn't seem to influence ranking.

good article. Nobody knows what Google knows.

Does anyone truly understand the Google algorythmn? Im not sure that i will ever get to understand how we all get ranked, lose rankings, gain PR etc. I try to follow all the hints and tips and in some fields it works in others it doesnt. I guess that it depends how aggressive the market place is etc too.

That's a great question, Matt. I have over 20 years of experience in search technology, and I don't claim to know everything about the ranking algorithms of any of the search engines. What's more, I don't recommend worrying too much about it.

When you read an article like this one from Chris, it's not intended for you to exclaim, "Oh, crap! Now I need to get people to bookmark my articles in Delicious!" Instead, it is just a nudge that says, "Social media is important." Besides all the great benefits that social media brings by driving attention and site traffic, it helps your organic search rankings, too.

Don't twist yourself into a pretzel trying to figure out how the ranking algorithm works. Instead, if you focus on the things you should do that help you connect with your customers, the search engines will reward you. Yes, there are some specific tips that help you compete in search, but don't become obsessed about outsmarting the algorithm. That's probably the harder path to success.

The rich companies (or venture backed) can hire an army in order to spam the social media and to click on the vote systems.
Not really democratic.

Social media would appear to be an appropriate medium from which to gauge the interest in or verify the importance of certain consumer products. But there will be a dearth of discussions about other product categories - where does this leave business-to-business products? Perhaps the lack of a mass online social discussion around non-consumer products will leave competitors selling bulk steel or photocopiers an even SE playing field?

My experience has been that creating good content and frequently updating (blogging) is great for SEO. High quality relevant content is what people are looking for when they search. I think that's what many people forget when they are thinking in terms of SEO. Google changed its algorithm when the SERPs were driven by people creating links to game AdWord because when you Googled...you found a lot of crap. We have to remember that Google is in the business of search. The more relevant the search results are to the keywords entered - the better for Google. In a way this says to me that those who will have the best long term SERPs will be those who are continuously creating content that is relevant. Everything on every web page should be focused toward the keywords people would search.