Just_Guessing - 9:55 am on Dec 2, 2003 (gmt 0)

I think the exact keyphrase as anchor text for outbound links improves your ranking for those keywords, but the exact keyphrase repeated elsewhere on the page lowers your ranking for those keywords. That's why directory sites are ranking higher. If this is true, then there's plenty of scope for the multiple domain spammers.

Does anyone have any evidence that Google is actually discounting/penalising reciprocal links?