jd01 - 1:12 am on Apr 9, 2007 (gmt 0)

Maybe Google has become smart enough to understand that 100 links with the anchor text "Flash Bang Wallop Cola" are likely to be manipulative unless they're pointing to flashbangwallopcola.com.

…and to take EFV's thought a step further (if I was a speculator) I might speculate: if the historical data for links pointing to a site (not flashbangwallopcola.com) indicated there were 10 links added for exactly "Flash Bang Wallop Cola" over a 3 month period of time, along with 50 other links not containing the exact link text "Flash Bang Wallop Cola", but during the following 3 month period of time 100 links containing exactly "Flash Bang Wallop Cola" were added with 50 other links not containing the exact link text "Flash Bang Wallop Cola", then for another 3 month period of time 10 links containing exactly "Flash Bang Wallop Cola" and 50 other links not containing exactly "Flash Bang Wallop Cola" were added, it might appear someone was trying to manipulate their link count/text for a period of time.

That's really just 'far-fetched' Easter speculation on my part and I have no historical data or case studies to back it up, but my guess is it's a little more complicated than, "Oops! too many of the same links / link text", and probably has more to do with patterns of link / link text addition over a period of time.

<added>
Sorry, didn't read all the way back to the original post, just jumped in for a minute when I read some of the latter posts.
</added>

Justin

[edited by: jd01 at 1:29 am (utc) on April 9, 2007]