> Google could not immediately be reached for comment but the company
>> aggressively defends the secrecy of its patented search ranking system
> IANAL, but the way I've always understood patents, if a patent is issued,
> the methods involved are disclosed and are not secret.
They're disclosed only to the point of justifying the claims. One of the big games with patents is to disclose as little as one can but still have the patent issued.
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[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Although I am not familiar with the exact circumstances of Kinderstart, I am familiar with the statistics for this Digest. I know that sometimes there are wild flucuations in the 'hit' or pages-viewed count from one day to the next when using Google's statistics. I know Google never ever comes close to the same hit count as I get from my internal program for same, so I have to wonder at times if their 'secret formulas' etc are as good as they are claimed to be. PAT]