Anyone with a half-decent twitter follow list of SEO pundits/bloggers/practitioners would be aware of the recent drama/hubbub over site speed. In a nutshell, many people are claiming that just because Matt Cutts issued this tweet
http://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/6283319690 that Google is now going to add SITE SPEED (load speed) into its ranking factor pool.
I'm not so sure. Even if this was true, the SERP algo has so many other factors that adding this new factor in would have little effect. Of course, the more competitive your niche, the higher the impact of your compliance with even the smallest factor, right?