I posted more as a comment on the original story, but I have covered this issue in depth (from when Google initially proposed it, to when it was launched) here:
Of course, a better solution is some type of progressive enhancement that ensures both that search engines can crawl the URLs and anyone using device without JavaScript support can view all of the content and navigate the site.
http://searchengineland.com/google-proposes-to-make-ajax-cra...
http://searchengineland.com/googles-proposal-for-crawling-aj...
http://searchengineland.com/its-official-googles-proposal-fo...
Of course, a better solution is some type of progressive enhancement that ensures both that search engines can crawl the URLs and anyone using device without JavaScript support can view all of the content and navigate the site.