BlockedPR is a web page that documents web sites which have had their ability to pass PR through outbound links revoked by Google. Their front page now contains this notice: Important Notice Google Problems We have been getting many reports from visitors on this site that they are now seeing backlinks showing for some of the sites on this list. We are seeing the same thing but do not see the links actually helping the sites that are being linked too. We are also seeing many strange and incorrect backlinks for hundreds of the sites that we personally monitor on a regular basis. This leads us to believe that Google is having issues. This has been confirmed by many similar stories from other webmasters on many different forums. We have gone ahead an removed a couple of the sites that we have been contacted about but we want to send out a warning that we feel that this backlinks update is very corrupt and fully expect that a lot of sites that were not passing PR before are still in the same boat, regardless of the fact that a few backlinks are now showing up again. We do not like putting sites on this list. We are link brokers and would love it if every site passed PR. We have a couple of our own sites on this list as well. We are not out to get anyone only to provide a tool for link buyers. We would love it if every site on this list started passing pagerank again but the truth is that we have never seen a site that was blocked get unblocked. We strongly encourage users to participate in providing evidence that shows that a site is or isnt passing pagerank but it is very important for novices to know that just because you may see backlinks this week doesnt mean that everything is OK now. We never place a site on this list without first seeing a long history of it not passing pagerank, and vice-versa we do not remove sites after only seeing backlinks (but not actual) pagerank showing for a week or two. Lets all hope that once Google fixes its problems the backlinks, and the pagerank, will continue to show for the sites that were fortunate enough to see some changes on this last update. Thanks for your help and your understanding Jarrod Hunt Textlinkbrokers.com
Just one more voice saying that while Google may not be broken, they do appear to be bent a bit at present. Is this a mistake or a feature?
Since the link: command is almost exclusively a tool of SEO, it wouldn't surprise me if Google is playing games with it.
Why "playing games"? Why this deep reluctance to concede that The Great And Powerful Google can occasionally screw up really big time? You make mistakes, I make mistakes, and Google makes mistakes. And sometimes those mistakes are awfully big.
GoogleGuy has publicly posted that Google has made changes to the algorithm behind the link: command in response to feedback from the SEO community.