glengara - 9:31 pm on Jul 15, 2004 (gmt 0)

* How else would they deal with what they see a shortcut to high ranks?*

From that point of view, reciprocal links are as much a threat as bought ones, but generate much less controversy.

Both were around before Google, so let's assume their existence was factored into the algo.

Rather than trying to weed out by type, it would make more sense for Google to treat all links equally and include them all in their "links scheme designed to improve PR or ranking" test.

Which is where bought or reciprocal links could be undone, not for the type of link in a linkage pattern, more from the perceived purpose of it...