How Does Google Rank Websites?

This came across in my Bloglines feed today:

"Google have recently filed United States Patent Application 20050071741 on March 31, 2005, in which many of the search giant's secret ranking criteria is revealed and it makes very interesting reading...." (source: Great Site Ranking in Google: The Secret's Out)

Basically Google is just being more specific with what they are willing or not willing to put up with. For instance:

• Grabbing hundreds of links as fast as you can, or link farming, is still a big no-no. As I've always said, build your site well with good SEO and you'll get links naturally.
• "Sticky" sites, or sites that keep users coming back for whatever reason, are going to rank well in Google.
• Huge amounts of content added all at once will send up a warning flag (spam!). Add good content on a regular basis but don't go nuts.

Really, there were no surprises here. Basic SEO is unchanged, no new wheels need to be invented.