My site just missed out on the PR update that went on in early October. The site is about 2 1/2 months old right now so I am going to have to wait until the next update to see where I fall. Anyhow I have noticed that I am getting about 10 refferals a day from people googleing my url name and then getting directed to me. Do you think google looks at things like this to notice popular sites?
No, searching and clicking on links in the Google SERP will not have any effects on your page ranking.