do hotlinks count as backlinks?

is that why free image hostings have gotten good PR?

 

I highly doubt it.

 

I think they have high PR because they are popular

Links to non-html files can't pass the PR further, so it may only be useful in Google Images (I'm not completely sure about that too).

 

hotlinking images do count as backlinks (in google at least) and they will sometimes show up in a link: search too. If they pass PR, who knows.

 

Backlinks and PR are two separate issues.

 

ya but isn't PR calculated from the ratio between backlinks by outboundlinks ?

 

No, PR is calculated thru a iterative algo that is hard to explain in a few words. Take a look over here: http://www.webworkshop.net/pagerank.html]

 

If hotlinks help PR then storing my Ebay photos in a file within my website is a good thing?? Even without linking them from the home page?

 

Hotlinks can hardly transfer PR: to do that, you'd have to put links on the hotlinked page (ta actually get some use of it besides an image with PR=), which is impossible (cant place a link on a image