indyank - 3:46 pm on Jun 13, 2011 (gmt 0)

I have no doubt because of this that looks do play a role in Panda.

It isn't the looks in the direct sense.But the thing about this algo is it doesn't judge the quality of the content based on how good or bad it is, but based on other signals.

There are some superficial things that they look at. For example, if the images are really good, the content around it might be considered to be good. Add to this the social signals, mention of a few things that sends signals of value being added like user reviews, "pros and cons" and so on.