AJAX is valuable not just to “hide content,” but to avoid duplicate content where “no new content is provided.” Showing the same information 5 different ways with straight links (traditional page-heavy SEO approach), possibly giving users a few lines of feedback, is more likely to get duplicate content filters than to help you, so using AJAX to provide those features means you haven’t cluttered up your site with extra URLs for the same content.

That said, most SEOs are nervous of everything Google does, because they collect SO much information. Google Analytics is a very useful application, but I’m terrified that the “Firewall” between them and the search team will break down, and they’ll track related sites through accounts there. You might be so squeaky clean that it doesn’t matter, but it’s scary if you ever run informational sites related to your commercial endeavors.