This algorithm is both mandatory (order, after all, requires a pattern), and, at
the same time, the best-kept secret in the Internet business, because for search
engines, it is essential to keep the underlying factors that make up the algorithm
strictly confidential. This inherent secrecy has less to do with competition between
search engines than it has to do with more basic reasons: If the ways to obtain
good rankings were widely known, they would become irrelevant as they would be
constantly manipulated.