Doubt on three way links

Guys,
My understanding of a three way link goes like this - Site A links to Site B, Site B links to Site C, and then Site C links to Site A. (Hope this is right?) Now all three websites have one way links to their sites.

Now my doubt is - the above scenario is nothing but three sites getting one way links from each other. How is this different from a normal one way link? Why is it called a three way link while the websites involved in this equation are not interlinked with each other?

Thanks in advance for your time.

PS: This doubt came up based on the assumption that my understanding of a three way link is right. If it's not, then please ignore the doubt and forgive me for being dumb.

 

What makes it different is it is a Link Exchange. But you don't get the link exchange penalty. So instead of doing a link exchange with one site, you get a third party involved and all 3 sites get links and none of them loose juice due to reciprocal links.

 

This also clears up some doubts, I had in mind. Today i got an email from someone asking to get into a three way link.

 

It actually goes like this :

Site A links to Site B
Site C links to Site A

 

Any linking between site B and site C ?

 

Site C gets nothing?

 

Say you have one site, Site A.
I have two sites, Site B and Site C.


Now, I ask you to link from your site (Site A) to one of my site (Site B).
In return, I'll give you a link from Site C to your site (Site A).

Again :

Site A links to Site B
Site C links to Site A

 

Or it could be
A -> B
B -> C
C -> A

That is a true 3 way link.

 

It is all so that it doesnt look to the SE that the sites are just exchanging links

 

Thanks guys for chipping in. I'd like to thank you all for your time.

 

Thanks guys I was planning to launch a linke exchange program... now i feel this is better than the other....