Following links

I've been on some forums where html is disabled. People still tend to post links as a full url, but it isn't hyperlinked.

Can the search engines read and follow these links as they are not true hyperlinks, just text.

 

check the source code if it has an href beside it se's will follow the links unless there is a no follow, but even then yahoo still follows the no follow

 

Thank you, I'll check that out.

 

I don't think they can, they will only fetch the url, but will not visit it.