what do you think is the reason that google even keeps it around anymore. Is is obv. a crucial factor in people selling links. They want to help mitigate link selling... why not can it completely. FYI- TBPR is the page rank that is shown up on your handy dandy page rank displayer whether that be google toolbar or firefox addons.
if google reallllly wants to stop the selling of links (like they pointed at in their latest blog post) on unrelated sites for their PR then CAN IT. I think it would clean up a lot of the irrelevant links out there.
well. I guess it would be a good thing for G that the webmaster world revolves on Googles ranking system of web pages right? I mean look at the amount of posts/viewers on Yahoo's DP forum. no contest.
You can stop link sales. If Google do find a way to stop it, people will still ways to cheat it. People want higher serp and will do anything to be on the top spot.
Just to be cheeky - they keep it around to keep SEOs busy watching it instead of finding REAL ways to manipulate the rankings... it is a a great distraction for them against SEOs.. They whould keep it. ha ha haha..... As for links.. think about it. If you are dong something against the TOS they can tank U at their leasure.. you are pigeon holed Second - it help funnel Black Hatters into a position that's easier to catch. If all factors were equal, there would be many ways to mess with the system. On link centric system, the BHatters HAVE TO link spam... so G know's EXACTLY where to look for them. I am always interested in the technical docs (search patents et al) and how it is used as such. They force the target into a corner so to speak.. if all factors were equal.. spammers would have more room to hide.