I came across an article by Jim at http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2006/05/thinking-lot-about-linking.php and while going through it and doing a few searches I found an interesting contradiction to Jim's theory as well .. http://seo-kolkata.blogspot.com/ -- though the guy has mentioned tht he has not received much responce from the other forum yet, i just checked the thread and found that some discussion has started.. but overall both the article and the contradiction are interesting read for people interested in link building and Google algo.
Pretty basic information. Don't you think so? Thanks for sharing anyway. About your point out, Well may be not all, specially major ones, but there might be a possibility that "some" search engine company might be using this kind of information using some "tool". Probably would have mentioned this some place in their "privacy policy" as well.
Dude, your flogging a dead horse, just like Ihelp boards, you'd have to ask Jim. Have you tried to contact him? The data sub-set gained from TB data (tool bar) would be inconsistent and of little value as a metric. Using TB data is the only possible method to 'track' (without cookies) and then you are in 'Alexa' land where the data is heavily skewed because webmasters are the largest sub set of users. So let it go... or talk to Jim and ask for his evidence to the contrary
I think that will be the smartest way to do it Gypsy.. I have been watching the IHY board as well.. and it seems to go round and round..
For the record - I doubt what he says is actually the case... the gang at IHY seem to have the idea... if not a little aggressive about it .. ha ha ha..