Saying right.. For Google it's matter nothing but if you want to promote your site on other search engine also then it's valuable.
It just depends on your point of view, and what good they will do you. It does some people more good then others.
Google search is actually ignore the meta tag but it might still useful for other search engine optimization
I would still use them. Google might not look at them, but many of the other search engines do. Since it doesn't take much effort to include them on your pages, I would still do it. Joel
Well, last year in the official Google blog, they posted a piece called "Google does not use the keyword meta tag in web ranking" http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-does-not-use-keywords-meta-tag.html It's hardly a secret, or ambiguous. You don't have to be a 'guru', just be able to read the title.
True, Google doesnt use them anymore, but as we all know, this can be changed in few days again... Besides that, others still use them like Yahoo so my 2cnts are KEEP USING THEM!
As far as Google is concerned they are useless. But, they should still be considered necessary. Many smaller meta search engines still use meta tags. They may not send much traffic, but something so small and simple should be worth the time..