Google certainly has people talking about this ... but for me I see it this way: Google will definitely be able to identify "some" paid links but not all, that's just impossible. For example a guy sells one link from his home page to a related site, G wouldnt be able to spot that. On the other hand sites that advertise links for sale; sites that have large numbers of unrelated links; sites that add lots of links quickly after a PR update , etc, etc, are easier to spot. But ... so what if Google cant spot them all paid links, they have acheived their aim if they can minimise the amount of link sales and in so doing improve their search results (from the perspective of someone searching). Out of interest I recently purchased some links for a site as an experiment for a relatively new site. Within weeks of buying the links it started to rank in SERPS for the associated keywords. This is only one example, but it does show that Google can't detect all paid links ... at least not yet
That's very much my thinking on this, they have improved their ability to detect paid links but it is not 100%, my feeling is that we have to be much more careful now and avoid appearing in obvious sponsored links sections, unrelated site etc, which was probably always the wise thing to do anyway!
Well this is what people that sell links (like paid directories) would like everyone else to believe. I'm sure most people would agree that it is very difficult to become the top search engine on the net, but Google managed that one. It would be great for Yahoo to be back on top for me, but Google doesn't treat me that badly. I remember a time when directories were actually useful. The editors would find quality sites and put them in an appropriate section, so it was like an online Yellow book. Now they are just about useless. New crappy directories pop up every day. That happens because people want to make money off of advertising and other people's greed for better SERPs.
It is impossible and not 1 person on this earth will know if a link is paid or not if it has nothing by it saying this or in the source code saying that its a paid link, sponsored link, etc. So they will not be able to know every links that they see if they are paid or not. They will clamp down maybe or they are bluffing, but if they do find the paid links then it will only be through people that report it or if they see things like sponsored / paid links next to them or maybe even if they are using a paid links service to sell them.
I think it's impossible google will penalise paid links. It's not easy to distinguish paid links. Or it easy confused the paid links with not paid links. This will lead a trouble.
i can see google penalizing links that are totally out of place and off topic to be situated where they are, but if you have a dog training link on a dog training page, i dont see why google would discredit it.
Actually I like to tell you that I am also against paid links As a directory or a site can rise in rankings by buying a lot of links! That's why I have some started some new projects like bigoole.com- which is a different kind of directory and which does not want users to submit itself to other directories,it will index your website and will list it and I am doing some more work on it to prevent the spam!So currently it's database it empty and do n't search for anything! Reference:http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=320802 www.innermobiles.com- A robot edited directory which accepts only quality links! This directory uses AI to differentiate between quality websites and useless websites Well minstrel may not agree with me on this ,but the bot is very useful as it takes out content less sites,MFA's which has been very difficult for Google to detect! Also I run only one paid directory and most of the directories are free! Yes I agree that Google has the ability to detect paid links (sitewides only) ! as a link from all the pages of a site will tell you that they are paid links! But Google can't detect a paid link on a single page!
I can see why Google would be worried about the competition. and which defines quality links by the presence or absence of meta tags. Brilliant. Of course they can. There are many methods, most of which we probably will never discern, but among them: 1. the context of the link, 2. the source of the link (e.g., directories with names like "LinkFactory", "Bidding Directory", etc.), 3. and of course the reports from your comeptitors.
Why I say meta tags is important ,it indicates that site owner has some knowledge about how a website should be optimized for visitors and also it indicates what will be the content of the site related to! Also I am trying to constantly improve my methods ,that directory(innermobiles) is only a small step for giant leap! that's my opinion and also the bot also index some pages of the website actually to see whether the site is good or not! I have told about my site www.livepr.info I have got some good natural backlinks from some of the blogs like this http://bobmeetsworld.com/are-you-sitting-on-a-fantastic-pagerank/ there is link back to my site livepr.info there If google is penalizing these kind of contextual natural links then surely Google will lose it's market share oneday
I am sorry but I do not agree. There are legitimate sitewides. You can not assume such bold statements. The fact is the G can spot a percentage of paid links, in some cases it will determine probabilities of links being paid for, in other cases they simply will not know.
next G update in few days will tell what has happened to paid links but for me google has started finding sites that are selling links as matt cutts has pointed in his blog and they have created some more like where people can report which site is buying link. high pr sites have non relevant links will be going to penalised.
If G wants to end selling/buying links they should remove the PageRank bar all together. If they remove page rank then link buyers have to go a very long way to determine the value of a link and still it will be a risk. At the moment you can sell a link on a PR7 page for at least $20 per month but if the buyer doesn't see the rank will they still pay that much? I doubt it.