> That would hurt society more than help because once the algorithms are public, the code's inner workings can then be gamed and abused. But the algorithms are

> That would hurt society more than help because once the algorithms are public, the code's inner workings can then be gamed and abused. But the algorithms are already being "gamed and abused" - that's why Google keeps changing them - so in the worst case revealing the algorithms is no different than our current situation. The advantage of opening the algorithms is that everybody can see and understand how the algorithms might be gamed, so they can look out for sites and other actors gaming them. Keeping the algorithms secret is a way for them to play stupid and shirk responsibility, and lets them do their own shady things without oversight.